Ride wins Rep. Becca Balint’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Vermont’s At-Large District
Rep. Becca Balint has named Amelie Fairweather of Champlain Valley Union High School as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Vermont’s At-Large District. Their app Ride provides a service similar to Lyft or Uber, but entirely free, and intended to be used in smaller Vermont communities.
When asked what inspired the creation of Ride, Amelie Fairweather said, “The thing that prompted me to address this issue was an encounter at my job at Folino’s Pizza in Shelburne. A man, who had recently moved from Turkey, where I grew up, came in to interview, but was an hour late because he hadn’t been able to afford a ride. We spoke briefly, and he told me how hard it was to find rides in such spread-out communities. Despite being extremely sweet, my manager didn’t hire him because he didn’t have a secure method of transportation. I felt incredibly sad for the man, for the unfairness of his predicament, and it made me realize the devastating financial implications of not being able to afford a ride. People’s very livelihoods depend on their ability to travel, and I knew that especially those in the rural communities of Vermont would be affected by a lack of transportation—this is what inspired me to create Ride.”
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.