Each year, Apple Inc. sponsors a contest where kids are able to show off their technical and creative skills by creating an original app that can be used to help others.
After entering Apple’s Swift Student Challenge for the first time, Aurora resident Juan Campos Jr., 15, who attends Marmion Academy, is the apple of his parents’ eye after being announced as one of the winners of the contest.
“Since I was in seventh grade I have wanted to enter this contest,” he said. “I’d see other people making programs and watched a lot of YouTube videos about technology and that got me interested.”
Campos said he has already developed other technology-based products including a web browser – his first project – as well as a video game before creating his first ever app.
Late this May, Campos was informed he was one of 350 youngsters throughout the world to have been selected as Apple Swift Student Challenge winners.
Campos’ entry, known as Uplift, is focused on the importance of being attentive to mental health issues in children, teens and adults.
The app, he said, is specifically targeted toward those who struggle with anxiety or thoughts of suicide. It includes features like pinpointing locations throughout the country where people can connect with counselors along with medication reminders as well as resource numbers including the Crisis Text Line, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and 911.
Campos admits he himself has experienced anxiety and also has a condition known as selective mutism that can make it unable for him to talk.
“I’ve been through some of the things that the people who might use my app have experienced, and I want to help other people,” he said. “Compared to years ago, I feel like I’m getting more on top of things. There were people that helped me when I needed them and I want to be able to help others now.”
Campos’ counselor at the school Christina Lipp, who is about to enter her fourth year working at Marmion, said the student “uses technology as a voice.”
“He has struggled almost his entire life with selective mutism and has started opening up a little more over the past year,” Lipp said. “There are times Juan elects not to talk and I’ve been working with him throughout the year. He decided to build this app because he personally struggles with anxiety and he came to me in the spring and said he submitted the app for the contest.”
Lipp added that Campos “was very excited after he got a chance (to enter)” and that being selected as one of the winners of the Swift Student Challenge “has turned his whole world around.”
“There’s this new and exciting adventure and he’s been so happy and smiling and it’s really awesome to see him grow,” Lipp said. “Now he has more ideas for more apps and just a bunch of different things he can do. I definitely feel through sharing his story and helping others to know there is support out there also helps him.”
Campos’ father, Juan Campos Sr., said he “was very proud and happy” about his son’s achievements and is convinced his son “will be in a technology career someday because I know my son likes it.”
“I hope my son with make other apps that will make other people’s lives easier,” Campos Sr. said. “If my son becomes rich and famous I want him to keep moving forward and doing things for other people.”
Looking ahead, Juan Campos Jr. said he is mulling over other app ideas “including one for people with dyslexia in order to help them read better.”
A press release from Marmion said Campos is receiving a free year’s membership to the Apple Developer Program and that Campos “is also eligible to participate in conference activities for developer program members, which includes requests for one-on-one lab appointments with Apple experts.”
Campos said his prizes included a sweater, a pen set and a pair of AirPods Pro along with a special letter from Apple CEO Tim Cook.
“The letter said he found my story inspiring and how I’ve come a long way,” he said. “It’s something I’m going to hold on to.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
