WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Donald Norcross (NJ-01) announced that two Haddonfield Memorial High School (HMHS) students have won the 2019 Congressional App Challenge for New Jersey’s First Congressional District.

Senior Julian George and Junior Pierre Yan created their app “Market Royale” to educate players on finances through teaching them skills such as investing, saving, basic economic patterns and financial careers. George and Yan were a part of the winning group last year as well when they created an app for students and parents to learn more about the nutritional content in school lunches.

“I congratulate Julian and Pierre on their achievement in creating a technologically-savvy way to teach people about an often-difficult subject – financial literacy,” said Congressman Norcross. “Creating an entertaining way for students and adults to learn is a brilliant way to teach. I’m constantly impressed by the talent, technical skills and creativity that our students here in South Jersey show – and this year was no different.”

“The idea for Market Royale is one I've had for a while since I've always been interested in stock trading and finance. I decided to finally make this app after taking a class in high school where the importance of finance was reinforced, and I figured out that this game could be educational instead of just fun,” said George, a senior at HMHS. “We are very grateful for winning, and it means a lot to us that we get this endorsement from our Congressman, along with the opportunity to present to other likeminded students from across the country and to learn from their efforts in DC. I will look back at the Congressional App Challenge as where my career truly began.”

“Both Julian and I are taking the personal finance class at our school this year. Having done a stock project, we thought it would be helpful for the class to have a simulated stock game where fake profile and trade stocks and affect the outcome of that stock,” said Yan, a junior at HMHS. “The purpose of the app is to be a tool for this class and allow student to get more a real feel of what stock trading is like. Winning two years in a row is really meaningful to us because our school is starting to develop the computer science program. Having won this award will encourage more people to join the computer science club at our school and computer science may become a class that more people take which can work in a positive feedback loop. Thank you again for selecting us as the congressional app challenge winner!”

The annual Congressional App Challenge is a nation-wide effort to spur interest in coding, STEM and computer-science education among middle- and high-school students.

All winners are invited to the nation’s capital for the #HouseOfCode summit, which will include a reception where students demonstrate their winning apps to Members of Congress and the tech community. Each winning district team receives one free voucher to travel to Washington, DC for the summit.

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Contact: Carrie Healey, Communications Director
carrie.healey@mail.house.gov