Press Releases

SURPRISE, AZ—Today, U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (AZ-08) announced the winners of the 2022 Congressional App Challenge for Arizona’s 8^th Congressional District. Molly Budhiraja, a high school student at BASIS Peoria in Peoria, AZ, won this year’s challenge for her app called Project Toy Exchange, a web-based app that allows parents to connect in order to exchange their children's toys or donate them. This helps parents reduce the money spent on toys and brings a smile to a child's face.

“I am so pleased to congratulate Molly Budhiraja for winning this year’s Congressional App Challenge," said Congresswoman Lesko. “Project Toy Exchange is a great app that connects parents with each other and encourages people to donate toys to children in the community. It is an honor to represent so many bright students, and it is wonderful to see how they use their talents and creativity through these apps to help others!”

 The second place app was the COVID-19 Tracker, created by Apramey Akkiraju and Rohan Agrawal, students at Mountain Ridge High School in Glendale, AZ. This app creates a color-coded map to show the concentration of COVID-19 cases in the Western U.S. and provides numerical data regarding COVID-19 cases and deaths.

The third place app was Math4Life2, created by Alexandra Acuna and Tori Lugo, students at Challenge Charter School located in Glendale, AZ. This app helps children with multiplication problems and seeks to make math more fun.

Project Toy Exchange was selected from a number of entries from middle and high school students across the district. Students were invited to submit apps written in any programming language for any platform. The winner from Arizona’s 8^th Congressional District, chosen by a panel of expert judges, will be featured on CongressionalAppChallenge.us. The app will also be displayed in the U.S. Capitol, along with other winners from across the country.

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