CoinCurious wins Rep. Melanie Stansbury’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in New Mexico’s First District
Rep. Melanie Stansbury has named Laasya Tutiki and Aarush Tutiki of Albuquerque Academy as the winners of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in New Mexico’s First District. Their app CoinCurious is an interactive financial learning platform designed for learners of all ages, but specifically geared towards a younger audience.
When asked what inspired the creation of CoinCurious, the students said, “We were inspired to create Coin Curious through our work with Jump$tart New Mexico, a 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit we help lead, which has raised tens of thousands of dollars for financial education and expanding access to financial literacy. Through Jump$tart, we assisted in the passage of HB171, which expanded access to financial literacy curriculum throughout the state. Unfortunately, we found that HB171 had major limitations in this space – specifically because many teachers were uncertain of which resources actually aligned with the state-mandated instructional standards. For example, a teacher could have a standard called “9-12.Econ.16. Evaluate how economic principles influence choices and can produce varied outcomes for different individuals or groups,” without being provided with what that standard entailed nor the interactive tools necessary to effectively teach it. To alleviate this problem in particular, while also addressing the challenge of financial education in our community as a whole, we created Coin Curious.”
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.