(New York, NY and Raleigh, NC) – July 15, 2020: Lenovo and NAF announced the 2020 Lenovo Scholar Network “Fan Favorite” mobile app honoree this week at the virtual NAF Next conference. The winning team was chosen out of five team finalists by online voters. NAF Next is NAF’s signature event that brings together education, business, and community leaders to network and share ideas for how to increase opportunities, grow partnerships, and improve learning experiences and outcomes for high school students nationwide.
The 2020 national Lenovo Scholar Network “Fan Favorite” winner is Sports MAN from Enloe High School, Academy of Health Sciences in Raleigh, NC. This resource helps users to diagnose a sports injury and treat it immediately, as well as offering exercises and stretches to help with the recovery. The team will receive state-of-the-art technology, courtesy of Lenovo.
The mobile app competition is part of the Lenovo Scholar Network, a partnership that Lenovo and NAF created in 2014 to encourage greater interest among underserved high school students in STEM subjects, while enabling them with entrepreneurial and technology skills needed to pursue careers in computer science, programming and engineering.
In its first year, 10 NAF IT academies were invited with a goal of reaching 250 students, surpassing that goal by serving more than 400 students nationwide. As the Lenovo Scholar Network prepares to enter its seventh year, it is expected to serve 6,000 NAF students across the country. In conjunction with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) App Inventor, a project within the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL), Lenovo Scholar Network students have the opportunity to use MIT App Inventor to develop Android mobile apps using Lenovo devices. NAF and MIT work together to provide technical assistance to teachers in the Lenovo Scholar Network and to develop support materials for teachers using MIT App Inventor.
This year’s Mobile App Development Competition included teams of students from NAF academies across the U.S. who spent months developing applications that will be of service in their classrooms and communities and adjusted to the transition stemming from the unprecedented circumstances faced this school year with COVID-19. A panel of judges, including Lenovo executives and employees, announced the top 5 in June, with online voting conducted to determine this year’s “Fan Favorite.”
In addition to Sports MAN announced yesterday, the other four winning app teams from the national competition who presented were:
- Enloe High School, Academy of Health Sciences, Raleigh, NC
- An interactive kid-friendly app targeted towards helping young children with ADHD
- Mallard Creek High School, Academy of Engineering, Charlotte, NC
- An app that can generate a random password to help people create stronger security measures and help protect their accounts
- Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology, Academy of Information Technology, Charlotte, NC
- An app to help people become healthier — providing assistance with losing weight or gaining muscle. It also recommends tips on how to better achieve personal goals, a tracking system based on their newest data, recipes for any time of the day, sample shopping lists, videos, and more
- Clarence High School, Academy of Finance, Clarence, NY
- An app to assist with productivity and remaining on task and to help reduce procrastination when using a phone during work
Quotes:
“We’re incredibly proud of this year’s Lenovo Scholar Network participants, and thankful for the instructors, NAF and our partners who make this meaningful program possible,” said Matthew Zielinski, president of Lenovo North America and a member of the NAF Board of Directors. “Despite facing challenging circumstances, especially the past several weeks when students were unable to work together in a traditional classroom setting, these young scholars overcame, excelled and developed apps with real world impact.”
JD Hoye, Chief Executive Officer, NAF
“Congratulations to our 2020 Lenovo Scholar Network winning teams and all of our students who participated. We are grateful to Lenovo for their continued support with this innovative program and are so impressed with our students for their ability to pivot in this challenging time. Your mobile apps always put others first and propose solutions that will better our schools, communities, and society.”
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About Lenovo
Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a US$50 billion Fortune Global 500 company, with 63,000 employees and operating in 180 markets around the world. Focused on a bold vision to deliver smarter technology for all, we are developing world-changing technologies that create a more inclusive, trustworthy and sustainable digital society. By designing, engineering and building the world’s most complete portfolio of smart devices and infrastructure, we are also leading an Intelligent Transformation – to create better experiences and opportunities for millions of customers around the world. To find out more visit https://www.lenovo.com, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Weibo and read about the latest news via our StoryHub.
About NAF
NAF is a national network of education, business, and community leaders who work together to ensure that high school students are college, career, and future ready.
NAF works with high need communities to transform the high school experience through an educational design that includes industry-specific curricula, work-based learning experiences, and relationships with business professionals, culminating in a paid internship. NAF academies fit within and enhance school systems, allowing NAF to become an integral part of a plan for higher achievement at a low cost. NAF academies focus on one of five career themes: finance, hospitality & tourism, information technology, engineering, and health sciences. During the 2019-2020 school year, over 110,000 students attended 620 NAF academies across 34 states, plus DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. In 2019, NAF academies reported 99% of seniors graduated with 86% of graduates planning to go to college.
Contacts
Media:
Lenovo
David Hamilton, (919) 908-5153
dhamilton1@lenovo.com
NAF
Courtney Savoia, (646) 896-3881