Remember When wins Rep. David Rouzer’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in North Carolina’s Seventh District
Rep. David Rouzer has named Edward Burton, Tilghman Reiss, and Bentley Burton of Laney High School and New Hanover High School as the winners of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in North Carolina’s Seventh District. Their app Remember When provides companionship and comfort to the elderly while preserving their stories.
When asked what inspired the creation of Remember When, the students said, “We were inspired to create Remember When because our families both have experience with memory loss, and we used our own experiences as well as an interview with an elderly person to come up with the idea that solved a real problem in our community.
“According to a 2023 poll, 37% of adults aged 50-80 suffer from loneliness. Our app aims to combat this by providing a comforting companion that the elderly can talk to, providing stimulation and interaction.
“Our app also provides a legacy of memories for loved ones. We have always loved hearing stories from our grandparents. We realized how many people’s grandparents suffer from cognitive decline and diseases like Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Their stories are being lost daily to those diseases, and with that, a part of them is disappearing. We hope that by creating this app, we can help preserve their stories, so their loved ones can cherish them forever.
“We believe our app also will help stir fading memories. After talking with an elderly person who has known many people living with memory loss, we realized that, sometimes, a little prompt or stimulation can unlock a flood of memories. This is why our app constantly prompts the user, trying to gather as much information as possible and never letting the conversation end.”
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.