DETROIT — Three local Detroit high school students won the Lenovo Scholar Network Competition – an annual competition that awards 6 teams from underserved high school students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) for developing the best mobile app that addresses their community’s needs.
At Detroit Institute of Technology at Cody, freshman Nakya Barbour, sophomore Jordan McClendon and senior Nala Barlow developed Human Nature: Puberty Edition, an app that they hope will help educate students about their changing bodies.
The idea came from the students’ realization that their classmates aren’t comfortable with their bodies, and most of their parents don’t feel comfortable talking to their kids about sexual health.
The app includes websites, tips, testimonials, or videos about every area of interest/type of change, and it can even assist parents in having “the talk” with their kids. The winners were announced this week and they will be recognized at NAF Next, an event in DC taking place on July 8-11.
The competition and app development program encourages greater interest among underserved high school students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) while providing them with the high-tech skills to succeed in the 21st century.
In this competition, teams of students from more than 100 NAF academies across the U.S. spent months developing mobile apps that will be of service in their classrooms and communities. The results every year are a testament to the students’ talent, innovation, and originality in applying their classroom-learning to solve a real-world issue.