The idea of creating an app to help students connect with each other virtually helped two students win scholarship money from a competition in early May.

Paige Frank, a Quaker Valley High School sophomore, and Oluwatomisin Olaore, a Pittsburgh CAPA junior, won first place in the CGI I.T. Girls Challenge in Pittsburgh, earning them $20,000 in scholarship money. The money will be split between the two.

“We knew that our app was good and we put a lot of effort into it, so we were hoping for the top two,” Olaore said.

The CGI I.T. Girls Challenge is a 12-week app challenge for high school girls to work in teams to create a smartphone app. The challenge runs from February through May.

The two became a team through the Boys & Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania.

Their app, “GradeUp” aims to help students communicate with each other throughout the school year. The app includes a live chat feature, a sharing space for students to show their homework, a calendar to schedule study sessions or input due dates for assignments and more.

Frank said the shift to virtual learning was hard for some students and the team wanted to change that.

“We saw a lot of students were struggling due to the shift, and it was a drastic change from last year to this year,” she said.

To avoid being similar to apps built for schools, the pair wanted to focus on giving students the ability to chat with each other.

“We wanted to create something different since we knew there were a lot of apps for teachers and students to communicate. We wanted this to be student-to-student communication,” Frank said.

Frank said the entire experience was virtual, and mentors were available for students to ask questions or acquire help. Working virtually did not create a challenge for the two as they stayed on top of meeting virtually and keeping up with their deadlines.

“The only time we ran into a problem was at times it was hard to reach our mentors, so we would have to do it on our own if we couldn’t reach them,” Olaore said.

When the pair’s team “Grade Savers” was announced as the winners, Frank and Olaore were on Facetime crying and screaming for joy.

“Honestly, we didn’t hear anything they said after that because we were screaming, but it was very exciting,” Olaore said.

Christine Nguyen, one of the mentors, said both girls worked incredibly hard and were passionate about their project.

“I was elated and so proud when they won. They had a drive to get better and better,” she said.

Shamina Frank, Paige’s mom, said the win came as surprise. “It was a great experience. I was amazed,” she said.

The pair hope to clean up the app’s features before releasing it to the public. As for the scholarship money, both are looking at schools in Pennsylvania.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)