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Four teenagers from Cork’s St Vincent’s Secondary School have made the final of the global competition Technovation with an app designed to support children’s mental health.
The 14-year-olds – Alicja Skulimowska, Layla O’Driscoll, Leona Islam, and Roisin Buckley – secured a spot in the final of the junior category in the competition with their mental health app Bongo Buddies. They beat competition from 2,100 teams across 84 countries.
Technovation Girls encourages young women to build apps that will make a difference in their local community. The final, Technovation World Summit, is being held in San Francisco on Thursday.
The wellness app, which is free to access, provides certified mental health support for teenagers. It includes breathing activities, interactive stories and a chatbot called Bongo.
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For those who need further help, the app will point users to mental health organisations for more support.
Teacher Sinead Connolly said this was the school’s first year entering the competition, with more than 53 pupils signing up to take part.
“I reached out to the group that organised it in Ireland, Teen Turn. We expected maybe 10 students out of the school to want to get involved, but we had huge interest,” she said.
The project was developed in Apple’s programming language Swift, which the girls had never used before. Over 12 weeks, students were taught coding, app design and development. Apple also provided a learning specialist to help at the school.
“We decided to do something on mental health because our school puts a good focus on mental health and wellbeing,” said Alicja.
Another element of the app is its accessibility, with the students ensuring all young people can engage with app, including those with dyslexia, visual or hearing impairments.
The results of the Technovation competition are expected to be announced later on Thursday.
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