Winners of the Code Girls United annual Northwest Regional App Challenge include teams from Billings, Great Falls and Kalispell taking the top three spots. 

This year’s virtual competition drew 75 teams, consisting of two to five girls in fourth through eighth grade, from across Montana. For the challenge, teams were tasked with designing apps to address a community issue, which they presented to a panel of judges, demonstrating the technical skills, teamwork and business skills they gained during the process. 

The Billings team, Sched-You-All, took first place with an app to assist students with organization, planning and task completion with the goal to improve school performance. The team coded elements into the app including a Tiny database, chatbot, timer and text-to-speech technology. Members are Hailey Whisenhunt, Asa Osterlund and Tristen Heinert. 

Second place went to the Great Falls team, Cursive Create, which created an app to help preserve the art of cursive writing. Members include Lily Kirkaldie, Charlie Kotthoff and Danica Sabo. 

The Kalispell team, Happy Plate, placed third at the April 26 competition. The team,  Anwyn Bradley, Efia O’Brien and Finley Dalrymple, created an app to help with awareness and resources for healthy eating to curb obesity and unhealthy lifestyles. 

The winning teams were awarded scholarships for $5,000, $2,500 and $1,000, respectively. 

“Congratulations to these students for their efforts,” said Marianne Smith, executive director of Code Girls United. “Every year, we continue to be impressed by the hard work and talent of these girls.” 

Founded in 2016, Code Girls United is a nonprofit providing free after-school programming covering computer science, business, public speaking and presentation skills and team building.  

For more information visit www.codegirlsunited.org.