Great Barrington — Jonah Sanabria, 15, a sophomore at Monument Mountain Regional High School, has been named a winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge.
The challenge was created by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013—and started in 2015—to inspire students to explore the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by coding apps. Over 85,000 students across America have participated in the competition since it started in 2015.
For this year’s competition, 13,000 students throughout the country submitted over 5,000 applications.
Monument Mountain Regional High School student Jonah Sanabria, 15, has been chosen as the 2025 winner of the challenge in Massachusetts’ 1st Congressional District, represented by U.S. Rep. Richard Neal.
As its name suggests, Jonah’s app Health Advocate is designed to advocate for users’ health.
Health Advocate helps users organize their medicine, develop health goals, organize health concerns before they see a doctor, and take notes during a doctor’s visit. The app also creates a checklist of questions users should ask during doctors’ visits and uses a cloud-based AI system to generate anonymized summaries.
“What happens to a lot of people is that, when they go to a doctor, they forget to ask questions because they get confused, or they get nervous and stressed,” Jonah told The Berkshire Edge. “My app is a patient advocate. It makes sure that you ask the questions that you have and never forget them. I’ve seen a lot of people go to the doctor and have a hard time with their visits, and it’s happened to me as well.”
Jonah said that it took him three weeks to develop the app. “It was a lot of hours of work,” he said. “I had to come up with a plan in the first few days, and then I spent the rest of my time refining it.”
The app is not yet available to the public, but Jonah said he plans to release it eventually. “When it is released. I hope that it would definitely improve a lot of people’s lives,” he said. “I hope that it will make a difference in the way that they are able to communicate with doctors and other healthcare professionals.”
Jonah is not yet sure what he plans to do after graduating from Monument but said he is interested in continuing to explore technology. “I do think that I want to do something with computers, whether that is being a developer or something else,” he said. “I also still want to learn about technology and how to help people with it.”
U.S. Rep. Neal presented Jonah with the award at a ceremony at Monument Mountain Regional High School on Friday, January 16. “In a society where technology has become an integral part of our everyday lives, the need for professionals in the STEM field is more important now than ever,” U.S. Rep Neal is quoted in a press release about the award. “The Congressional App Challenge encourages students to explore these fields through hands-on practice, and as we witnessed here today, our students are excelling. I am grateful to the administration, faculty, and staff at Monument Mountain Regional High School for providing their students the opportunity to gain valuable experience in a field with great potential. We often celebrate students for their athletic achievements, but it is equally important to recognize them in moments like these.”
As part of the award, Jonah’s app will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol for a year, and he will also have the opportunity to visit Capitol Hill in the spring as part of a celebration called “#HouseOfCode.”
At the event, winners from across the country will hear from lawmakers and will be able to demonstrate their apps.
