Island Pacific Academy students Mazzy McCloud ‘25, Bostyn Tsukamoto ‘26, and Danielle Okimoto ‘26 showcased their coding talent, dedication, and creativity in the prestigious 2023 Congressional App Challenge for Hawaiʻi’s Second Congressional District.
The national competition, hosted annually by members of Congress, promotes innovation in computer science and coding by inviting middle and high school students to develop applications across various platforms without any thematic limitations.This year, more than 11,300 students from across the United States took part in the competitions organized by 374 members of the House of Representatives, an unprecedented level of engagement. Each participating member of congress selects a winning app from their district.
McCloud took first place with her app, Capitals Quiz, which aims to enhance global awareness by quizzing users on world capitals. Her motivation in creating the app stemmed from her deep passion for coding and geography.
“Two years ago, I embarked on a journey to memorize all the countries in the world, and I succeeded. Then, I challenged myself further to learn all their flags. Once I accomplished that, I knew my next challenge would be to memorize all of their capitals,” explained McCloud. “When it was time to start the Create Performance Task in my AP Computer Science class, I got the idea for Capitals Quiz. It prompted me with a bunch of capitals in a multiple choice way, which quickly drilled into my head through playing my game, but also while testing and prototyping my code.”
“My app aims to address a common lack of global awareness that is especially prominent in our country,” McCloud explained. “Learning world capitals enriches an individual’s own understanding, but it also contributes to a more globally aware society, which is one of my passions.”
Tsukamoto and Okimoto seamlessly combined their individual coding projects to create a text-based escape room game that earned them second place. The two embarked on the challenge as one of their projects in Dr. Devon Widmer’s Advanced Computer Science class.
“We both worked on independent projects before this, whose storylines were interconnected,” said Okimoto “We took the entirety of each of our codes and stitched them together into a seamless game. My part of the code is the beginning half where the player is trying to solve a murder while investigating the crime scene, suspects, and other clues.” Tsukamoto’s game serves as the sequel – you then play as the murderer trying to break out of prison by solving a series of puzzles to discover the passcode to open the gate and escape.
“Both Bostyn and Danielle really went above and beyond with the project,” explained Widmer. “For the Congressional App Challenge, Bostyn and Danielle combined their escape room games into one massive text-based adventure, an impressive accomplishment that required them to tap into all of the programming skills they have been building up over the past two years.”
“The game is intended to be a way for people to use critical thinking and deductive skills across multiple rooms, each filled with numerous challenges,” shared Okimoto. “Our game is mind-stimulating and a way for others to test their detective skills or strengthen their puzzle-solving abilities.”
All three students share a common enthusiasm for turning ideas into reality through coding.
“I like how coding is on the one hand very specific in its details but on the other hand, you can also be creative with what you do with it. You can create such a broad range of things using coding and it’s so fun to see what you can create after coding something for a few hours,” said Tsukamoto.
“I’ve always loved coding since I was a little girl. When I was younger we used to play around coding little games on Scratch,” shared McCloud. “ What I love about coding is turning my ideas into real things. It’s like a puzzle and it feels so good when I successfully make something on my own. Now this year I am in AP Computer Science A, continuing on expanding my computer science knowledge.”
“Mazzy is an excellent coder and has shown so much passion and dedication to grow her app through all of these different phases all the way to winning the Congressional App challenge,” said Widmer. “It’s been really exciting to see these students take projects from class and refine them for a prestigious competition!”
McCloud and Jinghao Li ‘26, who placed third in the Congressional App Challenge for Hawaiʻi’s First Congressional District, will travel to Washington, D.C. this week to participate in the annual #HouseofCode event, where they will present their apps to Congress.
The achievements of these students underscore the importance of nurturing curiosity and providing opportunities for creative expression in STEM fields. Their success not only reflects their individual talents but also inspires others to explore the exciting world of coding and technology. Congratulations to our talented students on their outstanding achievements in the Congressional App Challenge!
