3 Harlem Students Win Congressman's Coding Contest

HARLEM, NY — Three students at a Harlem high school won top prizes this week in a science and coding contest launched by an Upper Manhattan congressman.

U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat said Wednesday that three students at West Harlem's Columbia Secondary School had won his office's Congressional App Challenge. Participants submitted videos showing apps they had built, which were judged by a panel of educators and entrepreneurs.

The three winners are Silvester Nava, Jonathan Guzman and Izabell Garcia, whose app, "Think About It," helps high school and college students apply active learning to their study habits.

More about the three winners, with descriptions from Espaillat's office:

• Nava attends Columbia Secondary School and loves the environment and spending time at the community garden at her school. She has a deep interest in technology and development and enjoys 3D Modeling and Sculpting in her spare time.
• Guzman is a senior at Columbia Secondary School and lives in Harlem. He’s interested in studying Physics and Computer Science and enjoys playing video games, discussing politics and current events, and coding.
• Garcia is a senior at Columbia Secondary School and lives in Manhattan. She enjoys coding, drawing, and engineering. This summer, she dedicated her time learning how to develop a code an activism app, which allowed her hands-on training in JavaScript.

“Empowering students in STEM is vital to the success of our nation, and the 2020 Congressional App Challenge is an innovative initiative that encourages students across my district to learn how to code and inspires them to pursue careers in TECH and computer science," Espaillat said in a statement.

Second-place winners Brios Olivares and Mannendri Olivares are twin brothers, also students at Columbia Secondary School, whose "FlattenTheCurve” app was designed to share information about the coronavirus pandemic.