Abp. Hannan High takes state honors in app contest

A team of seven Archbishop Hannan High School eighth graders has earned “Best in State” accolades in a national contest sponsored by Verizon challenging sixth through 12th graders to design a mobile app geared to solving a problem in their community.

The Archbishop Hannan eighth graders, who prevailed in the contest’s middle school” division (grades 6-8), created an app called “Study Buddy.” Its goal is to help students determine how much time they need to study based on their respective learning styles.
 
“In short, the app helps students improve their time management on a more individualized basis,” said Dominican Father Charles Latour, principal of the Covington high school. “I am absolutely ecstatic!” Father Latour added. “I think (the statewide win) really shows the ingenuity, the creativity and the drive of these eighth graders. It excites me that they were able to pull this off!”
 
The Study Buddy app features a survey that determines the user’s learning style, before syncing to the individual’s calendars – both curricular and extra-curricular – to organize his or her study time.
 
“The app gives them not only their time schedule, but how to study according to their individual learning style,” said Archbishop Hannan chemistry teacher Kim Bartlett, who advised the team in her role as science club moderator.
 
The Verizon App Challenge gives middle and high school students across the United States the opportunity to design real mobile applications. Teams compete at the state, regional and national levels. The team from Archbishop Hannan High, which took first place in Louisiana out of more than 1,800 submissions, is composed of eighth graders Logan Jeansonne, Cole Bartlett, Daniel Lowentritt, Nicolos Gagliano, Jameson Hussy, Kate Rush, Alston Snow and Zoë Eymard.
 
For the statewide win, the team will receive a $5,000 award for the school; a Verizon Ellipsis 10 tablet and case for each team member; a T-shirt, cinch backpack, bumper sticker and certificate for each team member; a recognition plaque and banner for the school; a listing on the Verizon Innovative Learning app challenge website; and eligibility to compete for the titles of “Best in Region,” “Best in Nation” and “Fan Favorite,” the latter to be decided by online voting.

The team with the most votes will receive an additional $15,000 for the school; in-person app development training from experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and an all-expenses-paid trip for each team member to the TSA conference in Orlando, Florida, in June 2017.

To vote using a mobile device, text the code for your favorite app concept to 22333. The Archbishop Hannan team’s code is STUDBUD.

Voting is free (standard texting rates apply).

Beth Donze can be reached at [email protected].