Catalyst wins Rep. Sharice Davids’ 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Kansas’s Third District
Rep. Sharice Davids has named Drake Semchyshyn of Blue Valley West High School as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Kansas’s Third District. Their app Catalyst directly connects with Canvas (a learning management system that manages submissions, assignments, grades, and more), enabling it to provide an enhanced experience and implement additional features, such as scheduling, course classification, and an improved notification system.
When asked what inspired the creation of Catalyst, Drake Semchyshyn said, “When using Canvas as a student on a day-to-day basis, you experience little annoyances, such as a blinding white background when working on an assignment late at night, or when teachers forget to add due dates. Catalyst allows you to enter a due date to appear on your to-do list. In addition to these features, Catalyst is highly customizable, from changing your primary theme color to allowing custom notification times for unsubmitted assignments. Additional integrations are present for high school students, allowing students to have their current course tile pinned to the beginning of their course tiles.”
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.