UnReeled wins Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Connecticut’s Third District
Rep. Rosa DeLauro has named Eason Ni and Avery Chung of Choate Rosemary Hall as the winners of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Connecticut’s Third District. Their app UnReeled was created to help encourage students to meet up in person and engage with each other more regularly.
When asked what inspired the creation of UnReeled, the students said, “We both attend Choate Rosemary Hall, which recently established a no-phone zone in the cafeteria to encourage more interaction between the students. We noticed that students naturally talk and interact when they are with each other. This showed us how students do want to socialize, but they just need a little push. We wanted to design an app that supports this idea. But instead of restricting phones, our app aims to give students that push by encouraging face-to-face meetups instead of screen time.”
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.