By Debra Greene
Ventura County students interested in computer science took part in a workshop over the weekend to learn how to code to create their own apps.
The event called “Hack-A-Thon” was hosted by Congresswoman Julia Brownley’s office and was held on Saturday at Pacifica High School in Oxnard.
Ten-year-old Muse Casanova from Newbury Park says she plans to create an app that can make people happy.
“Each day, you get a joke – just a really cheesy joke. Then, on the weekends, you get a general compliment like ‘I like your hair today’ or something like that. And on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a riddle to solve. Just to put a smile on their face and just to have a positive attitude,” she said.
Brownley is encouraging K-12 students in her district – which covers most of Ventura County – to enter the Congressional App Challenge. Students will create a desktop-based, web-based or mobile app and then submit a YouTube video explaining their app and what they learned in the process. The deadline to apply is November 1st.
The goal of the Hack-A-Thon and Challenge is to encourage young people to pursue the fields of science, technology, engineering and math known as STEM.