**DOWNLOADABLE PHOTOS: Spanberger Meets with Congressional App Challenge Winners Kaylee Meier, McKenna Withers, Riya Menachery, Riyan Golden, & Additional Fredericksburg Academy STEM Club Members **

The Team Created an App that Provides Users with an Index of Members of Congress from Virginia

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger today announced Fredericksburg Academy students Kaylee Meier, McKenna Withers, Riya Menachery, and Riyan Golden as the Seventh District winners of the annual Congressional App Challenge and welcomed the group to Capitol Hill. The team created an app that connects users with an index of Members of Congress from Virginia, providing their photo, district, political party, website link, and an excerpt about each Member.

Meier, Withers, Menachery, and Golden’s app, called “Rep Check,” will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol and shared on the U.S. House of Representatives’ website, alongside winners from congressional districts across the country.

“Each year, I am so impressed by the dedication and ingenuity of students from Virginia’s Seventh District who submit apps for the Congressional App Challenge,” said Spanberger. “Thank you to every student who participated and shared their impressive work with my team. Congratulations to Kaylee, McKenna, Riya, and Riyan for earning this recognition by creating a project to help get young Virginians on the path toward active civic engagement. I admire their passion for connecting their fellow Virginians — and namely their peers — to the political process. I am excited to see what the future holds for this talented group of students!”

“Many people know who the president is but cannot name their representatives in Congress. We were inspired to create this app because we know many people, especially young people, aren’t informed about their congressional representatives,” said Meier, Withers, Menachery, and Golden. “Our goal is to get voters and soon-to-be voters informed about the candidates.”

Click here for a video tutorial of the app, “Rep Check.”

BACKGROUND

The Congressional App Challenge is an annual opportunity for young people in participating congressional districts across the country to get hands-on practice with coding and computer science. Students are invited to sharpen their skills, push their creativity in STEM disciplines, and begin envisioning their future career, with an emphasis on including and inspiring students from communities that are underrepresented in the tech industry.

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