Smucker Announces Inaugural Congressional App Challenge Winner

Lancaster, PA – Rep. Lloyd Smucker (PA-11) is proud to announce the winner of Pennsylvania Eleventh Congressional District’s Inaugural Congressional App Challenge (CAC), which encourages students to utilize their STEM skills to create their own original app. The program was open to area middle and high school students in Lancaster and York counties.

The 2023 Winning Team is a team of students from Red Lion, including students Kelechi Okereh, Bannon Green, Chance Keithan, and Jenna Tracey. Their app called William’s Penn, was developed as a virtual information hub to share information about Pennsylvania’s founder, William Penn, share fun and engaging games, and provide a community board to allow for postings from small businesses. The team was mentored by Morgan Hepburn.

Smucker visited with the team at Red Lion Senior High School to meet and congratulate them on their CAC win and to present them with Certificates of Special Congressional Recognition.

“Each of these students who participated in the Congressional App Challenge has a bright future. I want to congratulate our winners from Red Lion and give my sincere thanks to each of the students and school districts who participated in this year’s challenge. The community should be proud of these students’ efforts. I am amazed at the students’ skills and problem-solving abilities demonstrated through coding. I look forward to seeing next year’s submissions and would encourage any interested student to participate,” said Rep. Smucker.

The CAC was created because Congress recognized that STEM and computer-based skills are essential for economic growth and innovation and that the U.S. has been falling behind on these fronts. To maintain American competitiveness, it’s crucial that the United States invests in our youth now and helps them acquire these valuable skills. The CAC encourages students to pursue those skills and recognizes them for their efforts.