Add this accomplishment to the 2024-25 school year highlight reel: Four MPS juniors created an app for the annual Congressional App Challenge and powered it to victory— and they celebrated with other student winners from across the country in Washington, D.C.

The students, from Audubon Technology and Communication High School, are Genesis Perez, Emma Rosales, Iyanna Bates, and Chit Moe Win Oo. Their winning app, called Restorative Practices, is intended to help resolve conflicts. The app challenge was part of a cross-curricular project last year between NAF Academy of Information Technology students and Restorative Justice students at Audubon.

Genesis said the app also was meant to show “how we can change people’s lives by communicating with one another.” In the app, people learn how restorative practices work. They then can click through scenarios, choosing from two options to resolve the conflict.

Restorative justice “focuses on fixing things and rebuilding relationships. Instead of just punishing people, it involves everyone affected,” the students noted in their written description of the app.

Because restorative practices look at why conflicts happen in the first place, they said, “It’s like a way of turning conflicts into opportunities for learning and making things better, while keeping a community peaceful and strong.”

All Audubon high schoolers must take a restorative justice course, which the app designers noted has been successful for their school community. The designers created the app for Audubon middle schoolers, who are not yet trained in restorative justice, so they can take advantage of its benefits, too.

Although the app was designed with middle school students in mind, “we want it to be used by anyone,” Iyanna said. The team isn’t alone in thinking that—one professor the students met in Washington told them the app would be useful internationally. Everybody in the world should be using the app, he told them.

Winners from 48 states and territories

Genesis, Emma, Iyanna, and Chit Moe were among more than 400 winning students from 48 states and U.S. territories who attended the 2025 House of Code celebration on April 8 and 9 in Washington. The U.S. House of Representatives organized the celebration, and dozens of members of Congress attended it.

The Audubon team won the app challenge sponsored by Congresswoman Gwen Moore in Wisconsin’s 4th congressional district. The students visited with Moore, who spoke with them individually in her office and asked them what they hoped to do in the future.

Chit Moe wants to pursue a medical career; Emma, who wants a career that will allow her to help her community, is still deciding what her path will be at college. Genesis originally wanted a culinary career but, since developing the app, has decided she’d like to work in marketing; Iyanna said the challenge confirmed her plans. “I’ve always been interested in computer science. Getting to work with a team like this really honed it in for me,” she said.

Developing the app, from idea to launch, took three months. Genesis said it was stressful, but ultimately a fun experience. The process allowed students to learn more about themselves and their teammates.

For example, Emma said she never thought she was good with coding or tech. “This is really cool. I got better at it,” she said.

For her part, even though Chit Moe had previously worked on developing an app, she found the Congressional App Challenge a good learning experience, as she delved into testing and packaging.

Iyanna noted that the students were strangers at first, but they became a team, and working together gave them tools for the future.

More than a competition

Their teacher, Amanda Glunz—Audubon’s lead teacher for computer science—sees the challenge as more than a chance to win a competition.

“I believe it’s essential for students from underrepresented backgrounds to see themselves reflected in the tech world and to feel empowered to solve problems that matter to them,” Glunz said.

“This project gave our young women the chance to explore the wide range of possibilities within technology and, more importantly, sparked their interest in using tech to drive change in their communities. I’m hopeful this experience is just the beginning of their path in the field.”

Visiting Washington with their teacher also gave the students a chance to sightsee and to bond.

The visit was a time for “getting off our devices and actually enjoying each other’s company,” said Emma, who was on her first trip outside Wisconsin. She had always wanted to travel to D.C. to see landmarks such as the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. “That was all something I’ll never forget,” she said.

Wearing their Cardinal-red suit jackets to the U.S. Capitol for the celebration, Chit Moe had to remind herself that “this is real, not a dream.”

“It felt so surreal to realize we had gone so far,” Genesis said.