ESCAPE FAKE NEWS wins Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Missouri’s Fifth District
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver has named Jonas Kates, Sawyer Jewell, and Henry Young of Academie Lafayette as the winners of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Missouri’s Fifth District. Their app ESCAPE FAKE NEWS is a video game designed to teach young adults what sources are reliable and will give accurate information.
When asked what inspired the creation of ESCAPE FAKE NEWS, the students said, “What inspired us to create this app was our interest in coding and video game design. We were also inspired to create this app as it is sometimes difficult to tell when a news source is reliable or not.”
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.