CAC: How did participating in the Congressional App Challenge contribute to your personal journey, career path, and accomplishments so far?

MH: CAC was the foundation on which I built a huge facet of my academic career. I became enamored with hackathons and coding altogether, focused more deeply on the intersection of technology and social change, and realized that my interests lie more in the realm of politics *and* computer science. Since then, I have studied abroad with the State Department, been named a Girls Who Code 20 Under 20 honoree, and started my undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania studying a mixture of STEM and social sciences.

CAC: Try to remember back to competing in the CAC – what was your app about and why did you create it?

MH: I competed in CAC with my app SociGO, which was built around the needs that I felt as a student myself, but also as a platform of service to my community. The goal was to provide students with a hub to find educational opportunities that was filtered by topic, location, and could provide a greater level of access to higher education for rural youth. This was something I continued to build after the app challenge and a topic I still feel strongly about, even though I am now hundreds of miles away in Philadelphia. 

CAC: What are you most proud of in your academic or professional career thus far?

MH: My biggest sense of pride stems from my willingness to take risks and my ability to pivot when there is a chance that feels worth pursuing. Growing up, I had no real sense of what I might want to do with my life. It wasn’t until I attended a coding camp back in 2019 that I saw a pathway which felt representative of myself. After learning to code, I stepped completely into the world of STEM, despite how daunting it felt initially. Doing so afforded me a myriad of opportunities from being in a CBS TV show, filming a commercial for Apple, and traveling across the world for projects. Having the opportunity to intersect my passions and develop a distinct sense of self through these pursuits has been my proudest accomplishment. 

CAC: Let’s look into the future – where do you hope to be in 2035?

MH: In the future, I plan to continue conducting social sciences research in a broader global context by taking on new projects, preparing to apply for law school, where I intend to focus on international human rights, and doing all of this in hopes of intersecting my background in STEM with my desire to enact social change.

CAC: What excites you most about the future of technology and innovation?

MH:I am excited by the ways in which technology can reframe our expectations of progress and push us toward a world of innovation we otherwise wouldn’t have access to. Specifically, I am hopeful that applications of technology can aid social scientists in tracking global trends, building more resilient systems, and addressing widespread societal problems.