The Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) “SmartCash” student team from
the NAF Academy of Banking and Finance at Southwest Miami Senior High School are
winners in this year’s Lenovo Scholar Network Mobile App Development Competition.
In total, five winning teams were chosen from 120 NAF academies across the nation that
were eligible to submit an entry for the competition. These high school students spent
months developing and testing their mobile apps.

The app development program was initiated to encourage greater interest among
underserved high school students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
(STEM) while providing them with high-tech skills critical in today’s job market. The
results every year are a testament to the students’ talent and innovation in applying
their classroom-learning to solve a real-world issue. According to the student team,
“SmartCash is an economic, budgeting, and credit-solving mobile application that can
help people improve their financial lives.”

The student teams will present their apps at
NAF Next, NAF’s annual professional development conference, in Detroit this July. “Fan
Favorite” voting is open and allows the students’ local communities to voice their
opinions on the apps and share their top pick. Vote for Miami’s team
at www.lenovoscholars.com. As part of the program, NAF, Lenovo, and MIT work
together to provide technical assistance and to develop support materials for teachers
using MIT App Inventor.