FORNEY, Texas – The Verizon Foundation recently presented a $10,000 grant to a team of engineering students at Forney High School for winning the Verizon National Innovative Mobile App Competition. The grant was awarded to the students by Verizon Vice President of External Affairs, David Russell during a reception held in the board room at the Forney ISD Central Administration building on Friday, May 3.
The students are members of the Forney High School Project Lead the Way™ team involved with the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) program. The team designed a mobile app for Forney High School and the Forney Independent School District with the support of Wesley Benjamin, the Engineering Design and Aerospace Engineering instructor at Forney High School. All of the students are seniors and plan on majoring in some area of engineering in college. The students on the Project Lead the Way Team™ that won the national competition are Abbey Polzin, Zachary Chavez, Amanda Koif, Thomas Sifuentes and Travis Coltharp.
The students designed a mobile app called “One|Place”. The Forney High School team won the state level competition to move on to the national challenge. They are the only school in the State of Texas to be selected as a national winner. The team’s entry was selected as one of the best designs from more than 470 submissions nationwide. The app offers students, faculty and the community one location to find details about upcoming school and community events. Verizon selected 10 schools, five high schools and five middle schools, as national winners.
In addition to the $10,000 grant, the Verizon Foundation also awarded the students Samsung Galaxy Notebook 10.1 tablets so they could create the app.
The students have been working with an engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop their winning app and make it available for download from the Google Play Store. The team members are using a program called MIT App Inventor to create the app. The students anticipate that the app will be live and available for students, parents, teachers, district administrators and the community to download by June of this year.
The students are scheduled to present the app at the National Technology Student Association Conference in Orlando, Florida, in June.
The Verizon Innovative App Challenge was created by the Verizon Foundation in partnership with the Technology Student Association to increase engagement and interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The students were invited to create concepts for unique mobile apps that incorporate STEM subjects to address needs or problems in their schools or communities.
For more information about the Forney Independent School District, contact Larry Coker, Director of Communications at larry.coker@forneyisd.net or by phone at 972-564-4055.