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Boardman trio wins app challenge

Alara Erzurum, senior; Emma Davis, junior; Ranean Sulebi, junior; and Evelyn Stanton, programming teacher at Boardman High School, recently received word that the girls were named this year's Congressional App Challenge winners for the 13th district. The app, which focuses on Ohio gun laws, was created as part of Stanton's Creating Mobile Apps class.

By ASHLEY FOX

Staff writer

BOARDMAN — Three female students from Boardman High School aren’t letting gender stereotypes get in their way.

Juniors Emma Davis, 16, and Ranean Sulebi, 17, and senior Alara Erzurum, 17, flocked together at the beginning of the school year when they were told to break into groups in their programming class. The trio, the only girls in the class, recently won the Congressional App Challenge for the 13th Congressional District.

“Anyone can do it,” Davis said, with Sulebi saying the class “is a lot of fun.”

Sulebi said they were given about a month to come up with an idea for an app, then create and submit it, for their Creating Mobile Apps class, taught by Evelyn Stanton.

“Our goal was to basically create an app that explains to a regular person what the current gun laws are and hopefully we can all figure out a way to change those and make the system better to prevent mass shootings,” Sulebi said.

“The girls’ (app) was really timely,” Stanton said.

Stanton requires her app coding class to participate in the congressional challenge, and told her students that social issues tend to win.

Sulebi said that the mass shooting in Dayton in August was fresh in her mind and seemed like a good topic, but she thought the group should stick to laws.

“They didn’t want it to be political; just wanted to teach someone something,” Stanton said.

While Sulebi did the research, Davis worked on more coding and Erzurum focused on making a video that explains how to use the app.

The girls said they were shocked at what they learned as they put the app together, saying the easy access to purchasing a firearm in Ohio makes them “concerned” and “pretty unsafe.”

“You can just buy (a gun) from some random stranger,” Davis said.

The Android app, “The Ohio Gun Obtaining Quiz,” gives 10 scenarios of someone trying to purchase a gun in Ohio.

If the user gets the answer right, a chime sound is made. A buzzer sounds if the user gets a questions wrong.

Sulebi said that regardless of the right or wrong answer, an explanation is given, as some people tend to guess their answers.

Together, the three hope that their award inspires other girls to take more technology-based classes.

“It’s a lot of fun, it’s pretty laid-back and it’s just something cool you wouldn’t otherwise get to know about,” Sulebi said.

Stanton said that while she sees mostly male students throughout the day, “It’s always nice to see girls in my classes.”

Girls are capable of succeeding in programming classes, she added.

“We try to get them in, but they traditionally shy away from computer programming because they think they can’t do it,” Stanton said. “Some of my best programmers are girls.”

The Creating Mobile Apps class has been part of the high school’s curriculum since 2014, and Stanton made the contest part of her class in 2016 when U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Howland, sent a letter to the schools in the 13th Congressional District, announcing the challenge.

The girls will head to Washington, D.C. in the spring to show their app, along with students from around the country who won in their congressional districts.

“Our students in northeast Ohio are exceptional and second to none. This app from Emma, Alara and Ranean from Boardman High School not only demonstrates that, but shows our young people are actively engaging with what’s happening in our society. These three students responded to a tragedy that shook Ohio by creating an innovative app to better inform Ohioans about our current gun laws,” Ryan states in a news release.

The Congressional App Challenge is an official initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives to encourage students to learn to code and inspire them to pursue careers in computer science. More than 10,000 students registered for the contest this year, and more than 2,200 functioning apps were created.

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