Freelance President wins Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in New York’s 11th District
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis has named Edan Chen and Ryan Qian of Stuyvesant High School as the winners of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in New York’s 11th District. Their app Freelance President is a game where you can play as the president of a country.
When asked what inspired the creation of Freelance President, the students said, “We thought it was interesting that government decisions affect everyday life, but most people (especially students) only learn about it from textbooks. We wanted to make the idea of government decisions more interactive and relatable. So, our app is inspired by the desire to create a game where you can play as a diplomat and see the consequences immediately. Our goal was to make these topics feel fun while also helping players understand the nuance and complexity involved with making big political decisions.”
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.