CivicsEd wins Rep. Kevin Mullin’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in California’s 15th District

When asked what inspired the creation of CivicsEd, Ryan Chou said, “Urgency.  I believe civic educational inequality within CA is one of the most enduring barriers to community well-being. In fact, the economic and racial achievement gap in California well surpasses the national average, with some students in low-income districts scoring an average of a full grade level below low-income students in other states.

“More importantly, this educational inequality blocks students, who are disproportionately Latino or Asian American, from participation in government and in our economies. And in turn, stops their voices from being represented in key policy and community decisions.

“To address this, I wanted to start at the root cause. After a series of interviews with teachers and students throughout the county, I found that there were three main components that this problem encapsulated. First, teaching kids the necessity of media literacy, as well as the importance of nuanced argumentation. Because teachers in elementary or middle school often do not have a solid media literacy curriculum to build off of, I decided to build a general ‘classrooms’ type system for teachers to facilitate meaningful dialogues with students. Combined with AI, this guides students as they draft their responses: helping them evaluate the validity of their sources and establishing a clear line of reasoning.

“Additionally, there has been a substantial increase in AI-generated content on the internet. This is especially relevant to younger generations; as the line between what is real and fake begins to blur, the future leaders of our world will need to learn how to interpret and corroborate claims with other sources online.

“As the Communications Officer for the San Mateo County Youth Commission, I’ve also noticed a lot of reports from students who are interested in participating in local youth organizations and civic efforts, but have no idea where to start or who to reach out to. Our networking page is run on a by-youth, for-youth model. Students organizing events or petitions may list details for their event on the page, where other youth may reach out or join them during the actual event. This is essential in hyper-localized communities, where it’s hard for youth to make connections outside of the context of their school.

“Ultimately, CivicsEd is informed by the necessity of civics education within our community—integrated with AI, CivicsEd is a platform that enables community members, from all walks of life, to meaningfully participate in government.”