See Green
care reminders for your plant
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The Final Concept (Presentation)
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The Final Showcase (Video)
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MEET THE PRODUCT TEAM
(click profile pictures to learn about the participants)
Fay LinAge 18 | College Freshman
Bridgeport 
Nathan HittesdorfAge 19 | College Freshman
Lake View |
Araville GuevarraAge 17 | HS Senior
Portage Park 
Nicholas BrownAge 18 | College Freshman
Morgan Park |
Alla BakerAge 21 | College Senior
Ohare |
THE JOURNEY
(click to view demo day presentations)
 November 5, 2021
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November 19, 2021
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 December 1, 2021
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 December 10, 2021
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Nu Muun
break the cycle
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The Final Concept (Presentation)
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The Final Showcase (Video)
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MEET THE PRODUCT TEAM
(click profile pictures to learn about the participants)
Jaidene SamiecAge 23 | College Graduate
Lower West Side |
Eric VelaAge 18 | HS Senior
Irving Park |
Matthew PoelsterlAge 18 | College Freshman
Dunning |
THE JOURNEY
(click to view demo day presentations)
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November 5, 2021
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November 19, 2021
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December 1, 2021
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December 10, 2021
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312 Pantry
food is the foundation to the community
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The Final Concept (Presentation)
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The Final Showcase (Video)
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MEET THE PRODUCT TEAM
(click profile pictures to learn about the participants)
Leona MeharennaAge 18 | College Freshman
West Ridge 
Katherine BonillaAge 18 | College Freshman
Avondale |
Brenda CoronelAge 18 | College Freshman
Belmont Cragin 
Nicolas SampsonAge 17 | HS Senior
Woodlawn |
Grace DaiAge 16 | HS Junior
Albany Park |
THE JOURNEY
(click to view demo day presentations)
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November 5, 2021
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November 19, 2021
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December 1, 2021
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December 10, 2021
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Getting to 3 Ideas
Team Process
From a shark tank process, the 312 Pantry team — consisting of Brenda Coronel, Grace Dai, Katherine Bonilla and Leona Meharenna, was selected to be part of the program.
Individual Process
From a 90 second pitch day competitive process, the top two ideas — Fay Lin's and Jaidene Samiec's, were selected. Thereafter, teams were formed using a 'dating style' matching process for the remaining students.
Alla Baker
What is your motivating factor for being in the program?
From my experience as an app developer throughout the summer program in Everyone Can Code I developed new skills and encountered new challenges on a daily basis. Going through these challenges motivated me to continue with the program and encouraged me to complete all tasks.
Being a part of a project and knowing that my work will lead to a change in my community is my motivating factor for joining this program. My passion for app development is another motivation to being in this program as it allows me to apply my knowledge from my education while giving me the opportunity to expand my current skillsets and experiences. I want to use my knowledge and work experience to create a significant change in society through developing applications that can help alleviate difficulties and tackle problems the community struggles from. Although this brings about further challenges, the greater the challenge is, the more exciting and rewarding it is once I complete it. Therefore, this process of self-improvement is very delightful. Every day I am a fraction smarter and more energetic than the day before.
Being a part of a project and knowing that my work will lead to a change in my community is my motivating factor for joining this program. My passion for app development is another motivation to being in this program as it allows me to apply my knowledge from my education while giving me the opportunity to expand my current skillsets and experiences. I want to use my knowledge and work experience to create a significant change in society through developing applications that can help alleviate difficulties and tackle problems the community struggles from. Although this brings about further challenges, the greater the challenge is, the more exciting and rewarding it is once I complete it. Therefore, this process of self-improvement is very delightful. Every day I am a fraction smarter and more energetic than the day before.
Please describe your education and/or career goals.
I am currently a senior at the University of Illinois at Chicago, pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Mathematical Computer Science with a Concentration in Algorithms and Theory and a minor in Business. My short-term goal is to advance my education by obtaining a Master's degree in Computer Science and eventually become an iOS developer, while my long-term goal is to start up my own company in which I can continue to grow and improve myself both personally and professionally. Through this program, I will gain insight into how a company is structured and how to manage its mission, tasks, and goals. For my startup company, my mission is to expand on what motivates me to join this program, which is to create a significant change in the community. I have multiple visions which I believe will address the challenges I observe in our community, and starting my own company is my professional career goal which will allow me to implement these visions and achieve success for society. This program will grant me the opportunity to take the first step towards building a startup company, and although I am at the beginning of my journey, I enjoy challenges and look forward to opportunities that will help me cross my immediate and ultimate goals.
Araville Guevarra
What is your motivating factor for being in the program?
Over the years, my relationship with computer science has turned the field from a mere interest into a creative outlet. While I was originally intrigued by its logic and organization, I discovered I could now turn my ideas, no matter how eccentric, into fully functioning products. For instance, when I wanted to highlight my favorite activist, I designed a website with HTML and CSS, and when I needed to track expenses, I developed a budgeting tool through JavaScript. In both cases, computer science allowed me to meet a demand—I could solve an issue—and though these projects only served me, others could address dilemmas affecting people on a broader-scale.
The Everyone Can Code Chicago program strengthened the concept that I could enrich my community, dealing with issues faced by multiple people, rather than simply myself. Tackling those unmet needs will ultimately improve our lives. By launching an app through this program, I have the resources to make it accessible to anyone who has an iPhone, expanding its impact to more people than ever before.
The Everyone Can Code Chicago program strengthened the concept that I could enrich my community, dealing with issues faced by multiple people, rather than simply myself. Tackling those unmet needs will ultimately improve our lives. By launching an app through this program, I have the resources to make it accessible to anyone who has an iPhone, expanding its impact to more people than ever before.
Please describe your education and/or career goals.
As a passionate female creative in STEM, I aim to become a user interface designer specializing in the intersection of accessibility, graphic design, and computer science to work towards eliminating the barriers that underrepresented communities in STEM face.
Without seeing anyone in computer science like me, I felt discouraged, thinking that I would not be successful in the field. That is why I am a firm believer in representation. Diversity in identity means diversity in thought, reflecting on the product that those people create. As they bring ideas that no one else would, they address issues that they face that while others in their team may not, those in their community do and are more likely to easily use the product.
This is especially important in UI design, where designers must cater to the user and their unique needs. Through the field, I can continue to delve into my interests and proceed with my personal mission. I can serve minorities, hone my creativity through design, and break the stigma of women in computer science.
Ultimately, throughout my educational and professional journey, I strive to push for inclusion in STEM: a community where regardless of one's background or identity, truly anyone can pursue a career in those fields.
Without seeing anyone in computer science like me, I felt discouraged, thinking that I would not be successful in the field. That is why I am a firm believer in representation. Diversity in identity means diversity in thought, reflecting on the product that those people create. As they bring ideas that no one else would, they address issues that they face that while others in their team may not, those in their community do and are more likely to easily use the product.
This is especially important in UI design, where designers must cater to the user and their unique needs. Through the field, I can continue to delve into my interests and proceed with my personal mission. I can serve minorities, hone my creativity through design, and break the stigma of women in computer science.
Ultimately, throughout my educational and professional journey, I strive to push for inclusion in STEM: a community where regardless of one's background or identity, truly anyone can pursue a career in those fields.
Brenda Coronel
What is your motivating factor for being in the program?
Prior to the Everyone Can Code summer program, I took an Android app development class my senior year of high school, and that class sparked my interest in mobile app development. After going through the Everyone Can Code summer program, I feel like my skills as a coder, presenter, and teammate definitely developed. A motivating factor that has been persistent in applying for the ECC summer program and App Accelerator program is genuine interest in learning about app development, but also I want to see how much I grow in my other areas that I might not know much about, like how to build and run a business.
Please describe your education and/or career goals.
I am currently a first year Computer Science student at Illinois Institute of Technology. I took Computer Science classes all through high school, ranging from web development to Android mobile app development. During this past summer, I took part in two Computer Science learning experiences, the ECC summer program and Google CSSI. In the ECC summer program, I learned both soft and hard skills relating to iOS app development. In the Google CSSI, I completed an introductory project-based JavaScript curriculum taught by Google engineers, and presented a collaborative final project presentation. During college, I hope to learn about different areas in CS, like data science and machine learning, and get internship opportunities for the field experience and learning opportunities. As for career goals, I hope to work as a software engineer or web or app developer, specifically working on technology that helps activism become more than just posting online, but could cause tangible change. I have always regarded my background in CS as a privilege because I was exposed to technology and CS when I was in grade six, and throughout high school I got to choose from a wide variety of CS courses, so I was allowed to explore my interests, I know, however, that this is not true for everyone. Another one of my career goals and interests is to become a Computer Science teacher, specifically for students who never had chances or opportunities like I did. I was very lucky to have had female CS teachers, so since the beginning of my journey in CS, I had role models and a support system. Again, I know that is not true for everyone, so I want to give back that support, knowledge, and experiences I gained to students who might be searching for someone to relate to or wondering if they even belong in tech.
Eric Vela
What is your motivating factor for being in the program?
My motivating factor for being in this program is to gain the ability to help others in some way using technology. I aspire to understand different languages in coding in order to apply these languages into future projects. I aspire to create/work with technology that will help others in an effective way. And for this to occur, I cannot do it alone. So I intended on also making connections and learning how to better work with others to have a better chance of making something that will potentially help many.
Please describe your education and/or career goals.
My goal in education is to fully graduate from college. I want to be a robotics engineer, and for that I need to have knowledge in electrical, mechanical, and software engineering. This might be a lot for one person, so for the closer future, I plan on entering the electrical engineering field first. From there, I will attempt to either learn by experience or through more schooling to apply software and mechanical engineering into my career. The end goal is to simply create/help create technology that helps people in a great way.
Fay Lin
What is your motivating factor for being in the program?
I want to take my understanding of Swift further by actually making an app that will be showcased in the App Store and I also want to work on my presentation and marketing skills so that others can know about why they need these apps as well. I think that this program would be good practice for working in a professional tech company setting and learning about what are best practices for developing a new app from the ground up. I had a great experience with the Everyone Can Code summer program and I would love to take it further with the App Accelerator as well. I am currently studying Computer Science in college and I think that implementing code into projects is more useful and better for practice compared to learning through lectures. This program would give me the experience I need to enter industry at some point in the near future. I feel like there is still so much potential with Swift that I haven't discovered yet and I think that participating in this program is the perfect blend of entrepreneurship, code, and leadership.
Please describe your education and/or career goals.
I am a Computer Science + Chemistry major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and I hope to become a software engineer in the future or maybe a full-stack developer. I hope to get my degree at UIUC and then head straight into industry and work on a variety of projects relating to biotechnology, software development, startup technology, or app development. While in college, I plan to participate in some research and also use the knowledge obtained from my classes to create different passion projects and hone in on my understanding of various coding languages.
Grace Dai
What is your motivating factor for being in the program?
Over the summer, I was a part of the Everyone Can Code program, where we learned how to develop an iOS app from scratch. I did not have any experience before entering the program, and my team's app actually ended up making it to the final showcase, so to say I learned a lot is an understatement. While my team's app did make it to the final few, I believe we are just getting started and there is still so much to do. I wish to be a part of the App Accelerator program because I think our app from the summer has a lot of potential, and I want to continue developing it, not just in expanding our coverage and impact, like the future plans and ideas we originally had for the app, but also I want to be able to continue developing the app in that I want to delve further into the app development process and learn how professional app developers carefully take their app from concept to being actually published in an app store.
Please describe your education and/or career goals.
Currently, I attend high school at Northside College Prep in Chicago. At this current point in time, I do not have a fully developed idea of what I want to do for my career, since there are so many different fields that I am equally interested in. However, my near future goal is to graduate high school and attend a four year university, majoring in computer science. I hope to major in computer science because I want to be able to explore the different areas of the field, from machine learning, to software programming, or hardware engineering, or data science, etc. There is just so much I feel as if I do not know about yet, and they all heavily intrigue me, so I want the opportunity to be able to gain knowledge and experience in all of them before I have to commit to a more specific domain. My long-term career goal is to hold a career where I have the ability to create change and make impacts on both my near, and wider, community. I want to be able to take technology and use its power to bridge people from different backgrounds, and achieve something that will actually end up helping people in their lives.
Jaidene Samiec
What is your motivating factor for being in the program?
Because my work focuses on visual storytelling, I am constantly searching for new ways to create experiences that better communicate with an audience. That is why I am drawn to augmented reality; it has become a newer way to make products and services more accessible to consumers. It is also an entirely new way for people to experience places and events that might otherwise be unattainable.
As I continue to learn about augmented reality, I would love to push my skills further and work with one of the App Development teams. I crave to continue my growth as a designer and would love to have the opportunity to work in a team setting to push a product.
My motivating factor for becoming a part of this program is responsibility. I enjoy taking notes, showing up to meetings and classes on time, and keeping track of any given assignments. When it comes to responsibility, I think of becoming a better version of myself. As I continue growing and developing day by day, I continue working smart and hard at the same time, learning from my mistakes, and taking my time with things like patience. Plus, I like communicating with others (in a positive way) whether it is over the phone, texting, emailing, or talking it out in person. That way, things won’t end up as a conflict, big or small.
As I continue to learn about augmented reality, I would love to push my skills further and work with one of the App Development teams. I crave to continue my growth as a designer and would love to have the opportunity to work in a team setting to push a product.
My motivating factor for becoming a part of this program is responsibility. I enjoy taking notes, showing up to meetings and classes on time, and keeping track of any given assignments. When it comes to responsibility, I think of becoming a better version of myself. As I continue growing and developing day by day, I continue working smart and hard at the same time, learning from my mistakes, and taking my time with things like patience. Plus, I like communicating with others (in a positive way) whether it is over the phone, texting, emailing, or talking it out in person. That way, things won’t end up as a conflict, big or small.
Please describe your education and/or career goals.
I am a recent graduate with a B.A. in Interactive Media Studies and a minor in Film and Screen Studies from North Central College. During my studies, I focused on the intersectionality of communication and design. This interdisciplinary experience has crafted me into a visual storyteller and designer.
In the future, I can see myself working for an innovative and human-centered design agency. Since design continues to grow and evolve with technology and the way humans interact, my interests tend to vary. Overall, I would like to focus on creating memorable experiences for viewers via design and technology.
In the future, I can see myself working for an innovative and human-centered design agency. Since design continues to grow and evolve with technology and the way humans interact, my interests tend to vary. Overall, I would like to focus on creating memorable experiences for viewers via design and technology.
Katherine Bonilla
What is your motivating factor for being in the program?
Being in the program gives me an opportunity to further my experience in software development by working and networking with resources to upload an app on the app store. App development is important and I believe a necessary skill to have, especially in a time where technology is growing rapidly. There are many times where I finish a project and think, "what now?" because I do not know how I can finish a project. During the iOS Training Program, I was worried that my group would stop working on the app after the program finished because none of us knew how to publish an app. With this program, I hope to gain the knowledge to publish an app that I could use to combine with other interests such as visual arts and teaching. It also gives me a chance to work with AR. I've worked with software development a lot, but never with topics such as VR, AR, or AI.
Please describe your education and/or career goals.
Investing in a career in STEM will prepare me for an innovative future where I can let out my artistic abilities and develop helpful products for our community. In most of my computer science classes and extracurriculars, I’ve worked to problem-solve to create a helpful project. For example, in my exploring computer science class, I created a game on Scratch to encourage students to recycle to possibly create a solution to the environmental crisis on Earth. My goal for my future is to build problem-solving technologies like my game while doing something I enjoy. I believe that to learn and fully grasp a concept, you need to physically practice it and be able to teach others. An education in computer science creates a large and diverse community with passionate and collaborative students. This is important to me because as a female student of color, I look for an inclusive community to discuss ideas with. I am not a risk-taker to new ideas, but with exposure to many sources of STEM like this program, I hope to become one. I will participate in explorational events to learn hard and soft skills and become a more outgoing person in my community. Working in computer science not only prepares you academically for the rigor of a STEM career but it prepares you mentally with communication, problem-solving, and teamwork.
Leona Meharenna
What is your motivating factor for being in the program?
My motivating factor for being in the program was the prospect of being able to further explore app development, a subfield of the large and ever changing field of computer science. My CS courses in both highschool and now college did not offer much creative flexibility in terms of how I want my programs to look and how I want the user to interact with them, whereas the App Accelerator Program gives me the ability to do just that and more. Additionally, I've always wanted to broaden my programming language knowledge beyond the more popular C-based languages and this program (which uses Swift) lets me do that!
Please describe your education and/or career goals.
I've always wanted to combine my computer science work with another interesting field, such as seismology or astronomy. I hope to be able to make important strides within that field through data collections and custom analysis—or, in other words, I hope to be a data scientist. I want to take my education as far as I can go without getting a doctorate, so I intend to achieve a Masters in Data Science before entering the workforce.
Matthew Poelsterl
What is your motivating factor for being in the program?
The app accelerator program intrigues me because the next step for me as a developer is to fully build and release a product. I have tinkered with small programs in the past for my own use as well as learning to program in the classroom setting. The actual act of designing, building, and refining a product was always missing. The ECC summer program challenged me in a new way by designing and building a prototype. This was a great experience, but it still lacked the refinement process and the final stage of actually getting an application in users’ hands. Programming just for class or as a hobby is great, but the power of technology truly lives in improving users’ lives. Specifically, if I am able to continue working on NeighStory, I believe in its ability to foster a greater sense of community through its focus on learning about the past of spaces we inhabit daily. Being a part of the app accelerator would allow me to use my skills as a programmer to enact change.
Please describe your education and/or career goals.
Regarding my education goals, I am currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and in Economics at Northwestern University. My goals for my career are a bit more loose at this point. Over the course of the next four years at college, I am sure that they will develop and become more specific. Currently, I can see myself working as a Software Engineer, Developer, or Machine Learning Engineer post graduation. I hope to find a specialization that intrigues me through the coursework for my degree as well as through experiences working as a programmer, such as ECC and internships.
One part of my career goals that I am certain of is that I want to use technology to tackle large problems in the world. Particularly, I see technology as a great force of democratization. With the devices that surround us, what used to be exclusive activities are open to a greater proportion of the population. With machine learning and signal processing techniques, anyone with a phone can now be a photographer and cinematographer. Online trading platforms have opened up the stock market to more people. If released, I see NeighStory as democratizing knowledge about the spaces around us, which most cannot access because it is stored in archives or in people’s memories with no vehicle to share it. In my career as a developer, I want to use technology to reduce barriers of entry by leveraging its uniquely powerful and flexible nature.
One part of my career goals that I am certain of is that I want to use technology to tackle large problems in the world. Particularly, I see technology as a great force of democratization. With the devices that surround us, what used to be exclusive activities are open to a greater proportion of the population. With machine learning and signal processing techniques, anyone with a phone can now be a photographer and cinematographer. Online trading platforms have opened up the stock market to more people. If released, I see NeighStory as democratizing knowledge about the spaces around us, which most cannot access because it is stored in archives or in people’s memories with no vehicle to share it. In my career as a developer, I want to use technology to reduce barriers of entry by leveraging its uniquely powerful and flexible nature.
Nathan Hittesdorf
What is your motivating factor for being in the program?
I want to continue to expand upon my IOS development skills and further my career as a software engineer. I loved being a part of the IOS training program, as I found the coding experience to be smooth with easily noticeable results. I have continued to pursue IOS development in my free time, working through swift coding books to learn more about development. I love working on apps and I have a number of ideas I want to expand into full applications. The training and guidance of this program will allow me to fulfill this dream.
Please describe your education and/or career goals.
I am a freshman at the University of Illinois at Chicago majoring in computer science. I aim to use my skills to pursue a master's in computer science and transition into a Financial-Tech or software engineering career. I want to further the field of computer science academically, and in addition, I want to be able to create meaningful and impactful programs. This program will allow me to achieve my future career goals by giving me hands-on team-based software engineering knowledge and experience.
Nicholas Brown
What is your motivating factor for being in the program?
My motivating factor to be in this program is that I want to learn more about coding, developing apps, and augmented reality. On-campus, there is an innovation lab where gamers, designers, and engineers hang out. In the lab, I was able to share ideas and the skills I have to learn to the think tank. If I am accepted into this program it will help me to share more about technology, app development, and reality composer with the campus community. Inaddion another motivating factor is to enhance my skills to achieve my dream of opening up my own tech company.
Please describe your education and/or career goals.
My education pathway includes college. I am currently a freshman attending Jackson State University. I am majoring in Electrical Engineering and Entrepurship. My education goal is to connect technology to the business world. on-campus I am involved in the innovation lab where Gamers, Designer, and Engineers come together to create new ideas. My career goal is to own my own tech company. One of the goals of my tech company is to develop products for my community more self-sufficient. In my spare time, I go into the innovation lab and share my skill of augmented reality to help others with their projects.
Nicolas Sampson
What is your motivating factor for being in the program?
My main motivation for being apart of this program is basically the same as before to make more friends that’s share the same passion as me creating and designing apps and projects. To see where this can take me in the future of technology Is just really exciting to me. I honestly just want to learn more about what technology can do for the world and people of it. The other main factor that motivates me I look up to Elon musk and dream of having a business like him and I feel like if I keep goin on this path of technology and coding I’ll have a successful business up there with Tesla and Apple.
Please describe your education and/or career goals.
My education path will lead me to my career goals. first I will go to college for game design and coding. There I will gain the knowledge of game design through classes such as, computer science theory, algorithms, practical programming classes 3D design and 3D modeling. After that I will be ready to create my own game with the knowledge that I required and while I'm doing that I will post on YouTube and try to gain a following for my unreleased game and for my passion of playing video games since that's how I got to the point I wanted to be at.