Technovation[MN] is pleased to announce that a team of three girls from Kasson-Mantorville (K-M) Middle School in Rochester, MN became just one of ten internationally that will compete in the annual Technovation Challenge finals in San Francisco on June 24-25.
Watch the video of the K-M girls explaining their app
The team of Rylee Melius, Lydia Mindermann, and Andrea Richard, all seventh-graders, was one of 28 teams that competed on May 3 at the second annual Technovation[MN] “Appapalooza” at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The Technovation Challenge inspires and enables teen girls to dream up, design, code and pitch mobile apps. Working with professional mentors, all-girl teams develop a real-world combination of technical and entrepreneurial skills. Technovation[MN] inspires the next generation of women technology entrepreneurs by bringing the global Technovation Challenge to Minnesota.
The K-M team was one of three across Minnesota at the middle school level that qualified as candidates to compete at the international finals in California. Another American middle school team qualified for the finals, along with teams from Mexico and India.
The K-M team is called Furst Class, in honor of its sponsor at the middle school, teacher Sharie Furst. The team is mentored by Kris Kendall, an IBM employee. The team’s app is called “Mayo Freetime,” and its purposes include helping Mayo patients from outside of Rochester find their way around the area between medical appointments Rochester and to chat with others who are in similar situations. The K-M team’s app could be adapted for other communities that have large medical campuses.
Furst Class will join the other 3 middle school, and 6 high school finalists in San Francisco June 24-25 to pitch their app to judges Preeti Somal, VP of Engineering at Yahoo; Tasneem Minadakis, Engineering Manager
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