Grosse Pointe Duo Honored in White House International App Challenge to Engage Girls in Politics

Girl emPower connects girls with female leaders and teaches civics and women’s history

A two-member Grosse Pointe app development team earned top honors in a White House sponsored international competition to create the best app for engaging girls in politics.

Laura Phelps and Andrew Cavanagh, both 25-year-old Grosse Pointe natives currently living in Virginia, were honored for their Girl emPower iPad app, which launched in the Apple App Store on Monday, April 22. Phelps and Cavanagh said they were honored that their app was selected and excited about its potential to motivate young women. 

The App, selected from a myriad of submissions, connects young women and girls with Congresswomen on the information mediums many girls use to communicate – Twitter and YouTube. The app also lets girls use interactive maps to explore their congressional districts, learn about their representatives and follow the latest updates from women leaders in the House of Representatives and Senate.

President Obama said the White House Equal Futures App challenge was about creating apps that inspire young women to become leaders.

“I want our daughters to imagine themselves as the next generation of leaders in our schools, our businesses, our communities, and in our government as well,” the president said. “As mayors, as governors, as senators and as presidents of the United States.”

To see the White House’s announcement, click here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/04/23/white-house-announces-girl-empower-equal-futures-challenge-notable-app

The app challenge was open to app developers from around the world and judged by a distinguished panel that included Jack Dorsey, creator and co-founder of Twitter and founder and CEO of Square; Jocelyn Goldfein, director of engineering at Facebook; Andrew Shue, co-founder of dosomething.org and co-founder of cafemom.com; Geena Davis, Academy Award-Winning Actress; Anna Maria Chavez, CEO of the Girl Scouts; Judy Vredenburgh, president and CEO of Girls Inc.; Tiffany Dufu, president of the White House Project; Senator Lisa Murkowski; and Mayor Elizabeth Kautz.

Phelps and Cavanagh, along with Brandon Claxton, 25, are founding members of Tortuca Labs, an innovative new app development company. All three attended Grosse Pointe South High School and graduated in 2005. Cavanagh said he was attracted to the project because of its complexity and challenges it posed.

“At Tortuca Labs, we are excited about apps that challenge us to find creative solutions,” said Cavanagh. “Our goal is to create apps, whether for citizens, businesses or governmental agencies, that are useful, functional and solve problems.”

Tortuca Labs has several exciting in-house apps in development that focus on leveraging mobile technology to solve important problems in health care and a variety of other fields including one project for tourism-based economies that could change the way these locations promote themselves, said Cavanagh. He said his team was also selected to develop iPad and iPhone apps for the Great Bible Race, a 14,000-question trivia video game.

Girl emPower is available for free download in the Apple App Store. To download, click here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/girl-empower/id593295518?mt=8

For any questions, contact Laura Phelps at laura@tortucalabs.com.