Congressman Scott Perry (PA-10) announced Parinita Mithepati, a senior at Cumberland Valley High School, Mechanicsburg, winner of the 10th Congressional District’s 2020 Congressional App Challenge, an annual competition that challenges middle and high school students to use their creativity and computer programing skills to create an original app.
“Congratulations to Parinita and Cumberland Valley School District on this tremendous accomplishment,” said Congressman Perry. “Pariniti’s winning entry not only demonstrates a great deal of technological prowess, but a keen understanding of how tech can help our younger students build academic confidence while developing fiscal responsibility.”
Mithepati’s winning submission, “Lemonade Stand,” is an interactive app designed to help elementary-aged students practice common math skills tested on Pennsylvania’s standardized tests while teaching basic money management, investment, and business development skills. Each user in the app is the owner of a lemonade stand, and each correct answer to a math problem represents a customer who purchases lemonade. With the revenue earned in each round, the user can invest in the business by upgrading the lemons, water, or sugar used in the lemonade, and then be able to charge a higher price for the superior lemonade in the next round.
The Congressional App Challenge helps spark interest and engagement in computer programming and STEM fields, while challenging the students to use their creativity to address a need in our communities.
“I’m tremendously impressed by all of the students who entered,” said Perry. “This type of creativity and innovation is precisely what helps determine the future success of our Nation."
This is the fourth straight year Cumberland Valley has won Congressman Perry’s challenge, part of a national competition started in 2015 to engage students in congressional districts to learn code and submit original apps to the competition. The winner is selected by a panel of experts, and the winning app from Pennsylvania’s 10th District is eligible to be displayed in the U.S. Capitol and on www.House.gov for one year. In 2020, the Congressional App Challenge inspired over 6,000 students across 49 states to develop over 1,850 original apps.
“The Congressional App Challenge allows our students to showcase to the public just what they’ve learned in our classrooms, and it brings us great pride knowing that a Cumberland Valley student has been selected as our Congressional District’s winning representative for each of the past four years,” said Keith Ensminger, CV Computer Science instructor.
Information on the 2021 Congressional App Challenge for Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District will be available early next year.
