CARROLLTON, GA – A team of two Carrollton High School students are among 90 teams selected nationwide as winners in the 2018 Congressional App Challenge, an initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives to encourage middle and high school students to learn to code and consider pursuing careers in computer science.

Senior Montana Freeman and junior Michael Mendez created an app called CHS Exam Hub, a tool designed to help high school students study for college entrance exams with a focus on vocabulary. The duo created both iOS and Android versions of the app.

Michael said the informational portion of the app gives students quick access to testing dates and deadlines for the SAT and the ACT. “This part of the coding was relatively easy,” he said. “Creating the vocabulary functionality was the harder part.”

Michael initially created the app for Android products, but Montana saw the need for Apple devices, too. “A large part of the student body uses iPhones,” said Montana. “This way, everyone can use it.” Both are available for free on Google Play for the Android and the App Store for the iOS versions.

Montana and Michael’s creation, representing U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson’s Third Congressional District, is one of five winning apps from Georgia. More than 5,200 students participated from 46 states and U.S. territories. Collectively, the teams created 1,700 original apps, a 35 percent increase over last year.

The 90 national winners will be invited to Washington, D.C., this spring to showcase their apps to members of Congress and the tech community at #HouseOfCode. Their work also is eligible to be featured for one year on the permanent display in the U.S. Capitol Building and on the House.gov website. Each winning team also will be awarded $250 in Amazon Web Service credits.

“I’m extremely proud of their efforts and thrilled to see them get recognition for their work,” said Robby Blakemore, CHS computer science teacher. “Opportunities like this are great motivators.”

Blakemore said other CHS teams have created apps that are available to download, including sight words and math products for elementary school students, and a messaging app called TrojanStickers. All are free.

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Michael Mendez, left, and Montana Freeman verify coding used in their award-winning app called CHS Exam Hub.