Quokka wins Rep. April McClain Delaney’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Maryland’s Sixth District

When asked what inspired the creation of Quokka, the students said, “In immigrant households, mental health is often stigmatized. We choose lies over honesty, shying away from vulnerability. Until we break the cycle, generational stigma’s chokehold on mental health will continue to tighten, especially in minority-heavy counties like Montgomery County and Howard County. Through Quokka, we hope to encourage students to confront themselves, fostering self-awareness while encouraging students to ground themselves in the present. Within schools, our team noticed that existing mental health apps simply list out resources rather than offering assistance to students. Our stress feels overlooked; assignments pile up, while guidance counselors often have too much on their plate. The lack of spaces where students can turn to within school to unwind combined with the dissemination of mental health stigma has created a toxic culture where struggles are considered ‘taboo,’ and students opt for silence instead.

“The ‘daily challenges’ and ‘activities’ features aim to change the educational culture surrounding mental health. Through gamifying the app, we hope to reach students better, while pivoting the conversation around mental health from heavy to light-hearted: honesty shouldn’t be condemned. After building Quokka, we reached out to Howard County administrators, powering through weekly meetings and late-night code sprints. At every meeting, we’d come back with a new redesign and three new features, determined to reach students. Now set to become the flagship mental health app for 40,000+ middle and high schoolers in Howard County, our inspiration has become reality. At our webinar last week where we demoed the app to middle schoolers for a week, their vulnerability shocked us. They opened up after we shared our inspiration behind Quokka, detailing how the daily challenges motivated them to get through hard days.

“Quokka’s emphasis on gamification resembles our team’s broader goal to end the bleeding of generational stigma. Opening up about your struggles should be normalized, beyond the labels. Ultimately, every feature and design choice we’ve made serves our purpose. The playful design and relaxing activities, along with the ‘streaks’ feature and ‘points’ system, aim to encourage everyone who uses the app to treat their mental health like their physical health. If we have Strava that rewards people for running through gamification, we deserve to have a mental health app that rewards living in the moment.”