By Haley McNulty – Entertainment Editor

Twenty carefully selected high school students from around Connecticut gathered at Trinity College in Hartford for a six-week internship program during July and August to work on designing apps to better our state’s capitol.

Apps were created for six public and non-profit organizations, including TheaterWorks, the Old State House, and City Hall, by six teams of four or five students. The programs created ranged anywhere from creating a mobile website, to creating an interactive map to provide directions around City Hall.

Rasheeda Samih, a senior at Jonathan Law, helped to create an app for the Department of Families, Children, Youth, and Recreation that is a mobile calendar for events and can let the user know where to contact them.

“I learned a lot more about programming and what the type of work enviroment is like,” Samih said.

She also helped to create a program for RiseUP, which was basically a mobile version of their website; using this app, users can find upcoming events and even sign up to volunteer.

By participating, students learned about coding programs, working in a professional atmosphere, using their time wisely and on a deadline, and some left knowing if they want to pursue a career in math, engineering or computer sciences in the future.

On the last day, August 15, students presented and demonstrated their programs to the companies they were designed for. Some of the companies were so impressed with their work, they are planning on launching the apps the interns created in the near future.

In addition to the end of the program, interns were surprised when they were told they would be gifted the tablets they were loaned to create the programs the previous six weeks, and were paid for their generous efforts.

Law teacher Ms. Martinich also attended a separate Mobile CSP program to work on the curriculum to make a course based on mobile computing.

“Coming into this year, I now feel more prepared in terms of teaching this course,” Martinich said.

In the fall of 2016, this course will be available for students to take. Every day for these six weeks, Martinich and Samih would drive up to the college together, attend their classes, and drive back together.

“It was great bonding time,” Martinich said.