Ontdek

Few things weigh more heavily on incoming college freshmen than who they’ll be rooming with. Eyeing their own college pathways, the team behind roommate-matching app Lumi Lumi set out to lessen the burden by giving freshmen a chance to match with like minds before landing on campus.

Meanwhile, the crew behind Beat Streets wanted to whittle away at a problem that has long vexed city dwellers everywhere — potholes. Beat Streets allows Chicagoans to report potholes to city officials, and future updates might allow anyone in Chicago to vote for which potholes most urgently need repair.

Both teams developed their apps as part of Everyone Can Code Chicago (ECCC), a community program that makes use of Apple’s Everyone Can Code curriculum. The program is run under One Summer Chicago, a local organization and Apple partner that offers employment and paid internship opportunities to young people across the city. ECCC aims to make app development more attractive by challenging students from different parts of the city to solve problems relevant to their own lives with code, and to turn that code into App Store–ready apps through seasonal accelerators.

The teams built their apps while managing the pressures of classes, part-time jobs, and college applications — with the added challenge of collaborating remotely during the pandemic. Completing that challenge, they said, yielded new insights into entrepreneurship and a stronger sense of purpose.

The Lumi Lumi team comprises four young women of color. Team members Amirah Ibrahim and Kelsi Sumter said they are proud to be making inroads in an industry where they don’t often see people like themselves. Giselle Salgado and Abriel Simmons echoed those sentiments.

“We’re one step closer to closing the gender gap in the STEM field,” said Salgado. “Yeah, or four steps closer,” added Simmons.

And the Beat Streets team sees their work with ECCC as a means to furthering their entrepreneurial aspirations. “If I can make an app, and startups are where it all happens, well, this taught me to create another startup,” said Saleh Abuali, one of the app’s creators. “It taught us how to make connections, which could help us when it comes to entrepreneurship.”