(Picture caption: Alfriston College students celebrate their grand prize win with Ministry for Pacific Peoples staff after creating the best app idea in a South Auckland competition.)
Young, innovative, Pacific minds were put to the test this month, when students from South Auckland schools were tasked with creating ingenious phone app ideas.
It was Alfriston College students with the best thinking caps on though, claiming the best app idea and prize money for their efforts.
In the Front Foot Apps grand final ceremony on September 20, representatives from the South Auckland-based mentoring programme Project Wy hosted an awards ceremony acknowledging students who could come up with the most innovative app ideas.
The Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP) supported the event, through its Pacific Aotearoa Community Outreach Fund.
To participate in the contest, students from various schools across South Auckland were tasked with creating an app based on “something in their world that they could change”.
This task required many students to not only think of issues within their school but challenged them to think beyond the four walls of their classroom.
Some app ideas created included a financial literacy app, a job seeker app, a side-hustle app, a lost property finder within school, a reducing waste for school lunches app and others.
First place winners Alfriston College team created a GearShare app, based on a trade and rent system of physical education gear and equipment.
A total of 39 app ideas from across several South Auckland schools were submitted, with the top 10 ideas selected to be showcased at grand final event.
Contest organiser Project Wy is set up to strengthen community-whānau relationships and home and school partnerships; while Front Foot is the science, technology, engineering, arts and maths (STEAM) component of Project Wy.
Meanwhile, MPP will continue to maintain a working relationship with Project Wy for its upcoming projects to support South Auckland communities and schools.