North Haven Student Wins Congressional App Challenge

NORTH HAVEN, CT — North High Haven School student Emily Cerasoli has been named the winner of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge for Connecticut’s Third Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn) announced.

Cerasoli, a junior, created Mandarin Made Easy – an app that helps people practice Mandarin.

“I could not be prouder to celebrate the winner of the Congressional App Challenge, Emily Cerasoli,” DeLauro said in a news release. “Every year, the Congressional App Challenge underscores the creativity of our district’s young innovators. Through technology, coding, and app building, students in Connecticut are making a difference and working to create a better future for people across the country and around the world. This program fosters creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills in a time marked by rapid technological advancements. Emily’s app will undoubtedly serve as an innovative avenue for language learners.

“I also want to congratulate all the students who took part in the Congressional App Challenge. This year, students submitted apps that tackled the important issues in our world today. Submissions tackled various pressing issues including mental health support, food waste, and aiding individuals with fine motor disabilities. Every year, I am impressed by the collection of stellar applications we receive. This year was no exception. We are so fortunate to have such promising innovators in our district.”

Cerasoli said her inspiration for the project “came after some of the challenges I faced when studying Mandarin in my school.”

“Language learning apps have a set curriculum which limits the user from practicing words from their choosing,” she said. “In class, I had no way to practice the specific terms that my teacher was assigning at the time. Also, when I practiced writing the characters, I would use so many pieces of paper. I thought that it was a waste and wondered if I could practice digitally. I looked for an app, but I had no luck. All the quizzing apps that I found had no ways to practice writing Mandarin Characters and no way to insert tones for the Pinyin. I decided that I could create my own app which would have all the features I was looking for.”

Since its inception in 2013, the Congressional App Challenge has “grown to become the most prestigious prize in computer science,” according to the news release.

More than 30,000 students have participated in the Congressional App Challenge across 308 Congressional Districts in 49 states and five U.S. territories. The Congressional App Challenge was open to all middle and high school students in the Third Congressional District of Connecticut.

Submissions from students across Connecticut’s Third Congressional District were judged by a panel of local experts who work within the academic, software, and entrepreneurial fields.