students win big at GlobalHack VII
Fifteen CAPS students, accompanied by instructors Jill Riffer and Joe Whalen, participated in GlobalHack VII. GlobalHack – in partnership with Casa de Salud, The International Institute, The St. Louis Mosaic Project and the Immigrant Service Providers Network (ISPN), among others – hosted the hackathon to reshape the experiences of foreign-born individuals and communities. During the hackathon, participating teams in Youth, College and Pro divisions worked collaboratively with industry experts to build tools, apps and platforms to improve experiences for foreign-born individuals in St. Louis and beyond.
The CAPS teams were cross-strand and brought together students from a variety of CAPS disciplines. The CAPSLock team of Joshua Jeng (tech solutions), Angali Roy (tech solutions), Sajni Saravanan (engineering), Emma Hines (teacher education), and David Centeno (bioscience) placed 2nd in the youth division winning a $5,000 cash prize! Their solution, The United Compass, takes stories from recent immigrants and community members to build an interactive map that showcases journeys and experiences to bring awareness and appreciation of the diversity of immigrants’ stories. By painting a picture of a diverse community, immigrants are encouraged to find a sense of belonging in a community that shares similar experiences with them. Click here to learn more about their award winning idea.