iFind – High School Internship Finder wins Rep. Erin Houchin’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Indiana’s Ninth District
Rep. Erin Houchin has named Jiping Liu and Jiin Hur of Bloomington High School South as the winners of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Indiana’s Ninth District. Their app iFind – High School Internship Finder collects and organizes internship listings targeted at local high school students.
When asked what inspired the creation of iFind – High School Internship Finder, the students said, “We, as current high school students, encountered this issue when we were trying to find internships ourselves. For example, I was trying to apply for internships for local politicians and businesses, but I had an extremely hard time finding opportunities that were located in Bloomington.
“This experience, as well as our peers’ experiences, led us to realize that there are no central databases on the local level for pre-college teens. While some internships are currently listed on LinkedIn and other websites, these sites are very public and global platforms that encourage competition. This may be beneficial for those who are enrolled in or have graduated from college, but this is not ideal for high school students looking to make a difference in their local communities. Additionally, LinkedIn and other job listing websites are often for-profit and contain a large amount of ads and attempts to sell users premium subscriptions.
“The iFind app aims to be the bridge between high school students who are looking for opportunities and local employers. The app is meant to be a free, public resource for high schoolers to use so that we can foster the next generation of the American workforce. For safety concerns, we do not have direct messaging available in the app, and we will only link students to the application form and/or a contact email. iFind is purely meant to serve the community, so parents will not have to worry about ads or monetization attempts on the platform.”
The 2025 Congressional App Challenge marked another record-setting year for the program. A total of 394 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives hosted App Challenges in their congressional districts, the highest level of participation in the program’s history. More than 13,800 students from across the country participated, submitting over 4,600 original apps focused on real-world challenges ranging from health and accessibility to education, sustainability, and civic engagement.
The Congressional App Challenge is an official initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives that encourages middle school and high school students to learn to code, explore computer science, and build practical technology solutions for their communities. Each participating Member of Congress selects a winning app from their district, and winning teams are invited to showcase their projects to Members of Congress, staff, and industry leaders at the annual #HouseOfCode celebration on Capitol Hill.
The Challenge is proudly bipartisan and reflects a shared commitment to expanding access to STEM education and preparing the next generation of American innovators for the future workforce. The program is a public-private partnership made possible through funding from the Broadcom Foundation, AWS, Infosys Foundation USA, theCoderSchool, Apple, and others.
The 2026 Congressional App Challenge will launch in May, and eligible students can pre-register for the competition now.