Barren County students win Congressional App Challenge

By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1

Congressman Brett Guthrie, United States representative for Kentucky’s second congressional district, came to Barren County on Jan. 8 to present awards to Leah Somerville, Sara Thorpe and Carlie Sanders — the three Barren County school students who placed first in the 2023 Congressional App Challenge.

The App Challenge is a national competition conductecd each year to “encourage coding in areas typically considered underserved” and to “engage student creativity and encourage their participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education fields,” said Kylie Foushee, director of economic development in Guthrie’s office. The winners of the competition are chosen by a panel of computer science experts.

Out of the roughly 30 apps submitted in the competition from the district, the three seniors at Barren County High School were selected for their creation of the A.C.H.E. — Accessible Community Health Education — which provides a “user-friendly” interface of basic medical care instructions to the 911 caller while emergency services are en route. Standard EMS response time is seven to 10 minutes in the county, and with most people residing outside city limits, that time only lengthens, Sanders said.

“The goal of our app is to increase survival rates for those experiencing medical emergencies by educating the public on how to handle them until medical help arrives,” Sanders said.

“It’s crucial for people to receive basic medical assistance while waiting for help to arrive,” Thorpe added.

Somerville said the app is not only an emergency tool, but an educational one as well. It has a non-emergency setting that can be selected at the outset that provides signs to look for and basic medical instructions.

Thorpe and Sanders, both seniors in the biomedical track, said they initially had the app idea back in 2022 noticing the lack of knowledge of emergency medical care in the time between the 911 call and when professionals arrive. They joined with Somerville, a senior in the web development pathway, who coded the app in roughly three months; bringing to life the two years of work.

This is the second consecutive year that students from Guthrie’s district have won the challenge. In 2022 Megan Shirley and Clay Madison, both students of Barren County High School, won with their P.A.T. app. Guthrie said the purpose of this competition was to showcase talents that might go overlooked.

“Our office does have a reputation of excelling in this competition, and it’s because we have talented young people,” Guthrie said. “I went to high school in Alabama…[and] with my high school they really only recognized you if you scored touchdowns. The reason we do this competition, and the art competition, is because these high schools are full of talented people. They’re talented in different ways and I think we, as a society, can put our focus on the wrong things sometimes. This is what’s going to change the world. That’s what’s going to change the world in the end: young people having the skills and creativity together to innovate.”

Bo Matthews, superintendent of the district, echoed Guthrie’s remarks saying he felt “like a proud grandpa” and pointed to this as a great example of the collaboration between different areas of expertise.

“I’m so proud of our students and can’t say enough about them,” Matthews said. “It’s not about silos in education anymore, it’s how can we collaborate and put minds together to create possible solutions to real world problems? This is a prime example. It’s becoming a habit.”

The three students will travel to Washington D.C. to showcase their app on April 10-11. Something they said they are excited for as their previous trip to the nation’s capitol got canceled due to the pandemic. Foushee said A.C.H.E. will be displayed on a screen at the capitol for the next year.

Maddox Muhlenkamp, a student at Glasgow High School, tied for fourth for the app WorkOutNow.