Crawford Announces First District Winners of 2014 Congressional App Challenge

U.S. Representative Rick Crawford (AR-1) announced Arkansas’ First District winners of the 2014 Congressional App Challenge Thursday with a team of three Cross County high school students taking top honors.

Cross County High School students Philip Billings, Carmen Juarez, and Truman Jones finished first for creating the iOS application iSave, which helps young people manage their finances.

Congressman Crawford said the app provides an invaluable tool to help high school students with their finances prior to graduation by including tip and gas calculators, money saving suggestions, and a transaction manager.

“As high school students prepare to further their education or to enter the workforce, it’s critical for them to know how to manage their finances,” Crawford said. “The iSave app encourages them to start handling small purchases such as gas and expand from there. I commend Philip, Carmen, and Truman for their outstanding idea.”

This year’s app submissions were ranked in three categories, including “Quality of Idea,” “Implementation,” and “Expression of Knowledge in Computer Science.” The app with the best overall ranking among these categories was declared the winner.

The 2014 Congressional App Challenge was open to all Arkansas First District students ages 13 years or older. Students submitted original app designs for their platform of choice, posting both their app’s source code and a demonstration video explaining the apps and what they learned during the process.

Crawford said he hopes to see the program expand next year.

“The App Challenge places a needed emphasis on educating students to develop the apps upon which we rely every day,” Crawford said. “This year’s competition has proven we have talented, budding developers in our District, and we plan to foster those abilities and ideas in the future.”