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Felicity-Franklin seventh graders win Best in State in Verizon Learning App Challenge

They hope to get your vote in national contest
Posted at 7:30 PM, Jan 27, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-27 19:30:33-05

FELICITY, Ohio - An idea for an app has paid big dividends for Felicity-Franklin Middle School. Now some tech-savvy seventh graders are hoping you will help take their idea to reality.

It started with the Verizon Innovative Learning App Challenge and Cameron Helton's idea to help small-town students get noticed by colleges.  

"It just hit me and I thought, 'People aren't getting into colleges at this school,'" Cameron said.

So he and classmates developed a concept for the College Scout App.

"[Students] would choose the school they wanted to go to and then those schools would be able to see those profiles and the videos and their statistics," explained Audrey Pinger.

"And it would be a lot easier for them and they would finally see talent from places they don't see," said Cameron.

There are similar apps, but just for athletes, said their teacher, Beth Francis.

"None of them actually covered both sports and academics that we could find," she said.

The idea won Best in State in the Verizon contest. The school won $5,000, and each student on the team got a Verizon Ellipsis 10 tablet. 

WATCH Felicity-Franklin's 30-second contest video here:

 

"For us it's a huge deal. We're very excited," Francis said.

There was an assembly at the school Friday to celebrate. Francis said she found out while her administrators were in a meeting.

"I couldn't wait another minute so I stood at the door and held up a sign. I said, 'I have good news,' so they let me in so I could tell them," she said.

And there's more good news:

The team also earned entry into the Fan Favorite part of the competition. The winning school gets $15,000 and training from MIT experts to develop their concept into a working app.

The winning team also gets an expenses-paid trip to the National Technology Student Conference in Orlando.

 

 

 Aaron Burton of Beechmont Verizon says he's rooting for the Felicity-Franklin team.  Burton was at the assembly to present the check and tablets to the team.

"I hope they get the fan favorite. They want it - I can see it - and I'm rooting for them," he said

 You can vote for the FFMS students on your smart phone by texting text "CSA" (for College Scout App) to 22333. Standard texting rates apply.

You can only vote once. Voting runs through Feb. 14.

SEE the contest rules and more Best in State winning apps.