Kean Hosts Congressional App Challenge Winner Recognition Event

(February 4, 2025) BERNARDSVILLE, NJ – Last night, Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) hosted an event to recognize the top winners of the 2024 Congressional App Challenge. 

“It was a privilege to host this event to honor students who truly excelled in the 2024 challenge,” said Congressman Kean. “This challenge is the most prestigious in computer science for students and stands as the largest competition of its kind in the country. Each student identified a problem or need in their community and approached it with passion and enthusiasm. I am truly amazed by their creativity and skills. The future is bright for each one of these students.”

Top honors went to Jonah Park and Arnav Jain, winners of this year’s Congressional App Challenge. Their app, Root, is focused on teaching kids about the science behind the environment and how change is possible. An important part of the app is the “explore” page, which acts as a bulletin board for user-hosted environmental events.  Root is currently featured on the Congressional App Challenge website and in April, Jonah and Arnav will represent the Seventh Congressional District in Washington at the National House of Code, where their App will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol Building.

“We created Root to give students strong foundational knowledge on environmental science, so that they can develop their own healthy perspective on the topic,” said Arnav Jain, Winner of the Congressional App Challenge. “The Congressional App challenge has allowed us to share our vision further, and we are excited to launch Root officially.”

“Root isn’t just for learning about the climate. It’s about providing the resources to make change happen,” said Jonah Park, Winner of the Congressional App Challenge. “The best part about winning the Congressional App Challenge has been knowing that our local elected officials care deeply about the youth and the concerns that we have about the community. Bringing light to these issues and concerns wouldn't be possible without the presence of government officials voicing our concerns and advocating for us on the national level." 

Five other Apps earned Honorable Mentions and their developers were also honored at the event, including: Jonathan Chang of Berkeley Heights; Clara Risso, Rebecca Lubeck, and Kayla Peng of Warren; Shiven Das of Bridgewater; Shrenik Rakshit of Annandale and Dheirya Tyagi of Bernardsville. 

All of the submissions for this year’s Challenge were judged by Mr. Vincent Panico and Mrs. Samantha Billig.  A former computer science professor at Raritan Valley Community College, Mr. Panico uses his tech background as a sales leader in the enterprise technology world and as Deputy Mayor of his hometown of Readington. Samantha Billig, named in 2016 as the Hunterdon County Teacher of the Year, has been a Business Education Teacher at Hunterdon Central in Flemington for 17 years, where she teaches Entrepreneurship 1 and 2, as well as Digital Multimedia Design.

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