Submitted Photo: Adi Ariyur

Junior Adi Ariyur works on his CHS Club Access app. He said a challenge he faced while coding the app was using a Django framework, because he had to implement multiple user types and handle administration, sponsor, and member logins.

Please describe your app and all it does. Why is it important?

 The purpose of CHS Club Access is to promote and allow for the easier management of clubs. In the management aspect of this app, admins can see statistics for all the clubs, managed clubs, along with their respective club sponsors, club officers, and club members. Admins can also create new member accounts. Club sponsors can view statistics of their sponsored clubs, manage officers and members, post announcements, and add events to the club calendar. Similar to the club sponsors, club officers can help manage club members, make announcements and add events to a club calendar. Club members can view their clubs, see announcements and events. In this webapp, club members will not only be able to search clubs by category but also get club recommendations. CHS Club Access is important because it not only allows for the seamless maintenance of clubs, but it also provides new opportunities for students to get involved and explore more clubs that interest them.

Why was it important for you to compete?

Last summer, I started to develop this website for more of a learning experience. My original intention was not to compete. However, as the project further got developed, I thought it might be a good idea to submit this for the app challenge. The Congressional App Challenge provides a great opportunity and platform for students to create and showcase their projects.

How do you feel about winning such a title?

It was a great honor to represent my school and the Fifth District for this year’s congressional challenge. It was really a pleasant surprise to receive a video call from Congresswoman Susan Brooks and hear my name being announced as the winner.

How did you discover and learn to code during your elementary and middle school years?

I started to explore programming using Scratch. When one of my projects got featured on the Scratch website’s homepage and motivated me to learn more. In the past two to three years, I have learned new programming languages as well as web development.

What inspired you to make this happen?

Everyone loves to attend clubs, (and) whether you just want to hang out with your friends or watch movies, compete, volunteer or express your creativity, clubs are typically the best way to learn and try out new experiences. However, many clubs use different platforms to communicate. Moreover, it can be a little overwhelming for new students to explore the vast amount of clubs offered here at CHS. This inspired me to create the CHS Club Access app, which provides an integrated club environment where students can find all of the club-related information forms, advertisement videos, club recommendations, club communication, and club calendars all in one place.

How will your skills affect your future? Do you plan to make a career out of coding?

Computer science is a constantly evolving and changing field (and) there are still a lot of things to learn. My experiences from this competition will help me with my future projects and career. I am interested in pursuing a career in computer science. In recent years, I’ve been inclined more towards web development, data science and machine learning.

Watch Ariyur’s official Congressional App Challenge video explaining and demonstrating his CHS Club Access app here:

Read about a past Congressional App Challenge winner, former senior Evan Kenyon, here:

Evan Kenyon, winner of Congressional App Challenge, Code for Change officer and senior, develops SRT pass app