WACO, Texas — A Midway High School freshman is being recognized as a runner-up in the 2022 Congressional App Challenge.
Stephanie Starks, 15, created the game "Magic Plants," meant to teach users about plants. She submitted the app through Texas' 17th Congressional District back in the fall.
In January, she received a letter about her award.
Starks was named the second-place submission for the district, which stretches from Waco to Lufkin and parts of the northern Austin suburbs.
Starks finished the app on her own time after beginning it in a computer science class offered by Midway High. She had no previous coding experience.
"It was encouraging that she took that initiative to work beyond what we had done in class," said her computer science teacher, Susan Jones.
Jones said she hopes her class gives students insight into how apps they use every day work. Several of her students have gone on to work in computer science jobs. One day, Starks may be one of them.
"I was really inspired from this experience to look into to other careers and shift a little bit. I really want to continue game design in my course here," Starks said.
