FREMONT, CA — Audrey Wang is growing up on the opposite side of the world from her grandmother. Although Audrey is in Fremont and her grandmother is in Taiwan, the distance has not prevented them from forming a close bond. In addition to video calls to stay in touch, the 15-year-old cherishes her summer trips to see her grandmother.
With her grandmother now diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Audrey’s mind and heart went to her when Apple announced a worldwide coding contest this spring for youth aged 13 to recent high school graduates. Audrey developed an app to help the brain use multiple senses to form or recall memories, a process called synesthesia.
If that sounds boring, Audrey folded the concepts into a game.
She was chosen as one of the winners of the Swift Student Challenge, so named because it uses Apple’s Swift programming language that’s used to build some of today’s most popular apps. Apple’s Swift Playgrounds requires no coding knowledge, making it easy for students to get started in the world of coding.
Audrey described with awe the moment she found out she was a winner, telling Patch that her hands were shaking and her heart was racing.
“Being one of this year’s winners has given me the chance to be part of Apple’s developer program to receive mentorship and build my apps further,” Audrey said.
Audrey won one of Apple’s most prestigious scholarships for teens. When the tech giant held its annual Worldwide Developers Conference — WWDC22 — in April, Audrey and other students visited the Apple campus where they met CEO Tim Cook.
“It was an honor to meet such a renowned figure in the tech world and even share my app Theia with him,” Audrey said.
Beyond meeting a famous business leader, Audrey soaked up the atmosphere of Apple, from the greenery of the campus to the energy of its engineers.
“The environment and the community of developers is so warm and welcoming, I really feel that I could grow and learn, and maybe work there,” she said.
Audrey is still deciding where to attend college. Is she destined to become a great developer? Perhaps. She’s already pursuing one of her passions — teaching English and coding to youth in Taiwan. She started her own nonprofit in 2020 called Fast Fluency International Tutoring Program. The rules of the Swift Student Challenge require that everything be in English which makes mastering the language an important first step for future coders.
Audrey’s nonprofit builds a bridge for other bright students to pursue their coding dreams. For Audrey, her bridge is Apple’s Swift Student Challenge.
“WWDC really is a celebration of perseverance, hard work, and our shared love for software and I had a great time having the opportunity to meet talented engineers and an amazing community of developers to learn and grow from,” she said.
Audrey is using her new skills to add features to her Theia app. It is not yet available in the Apple app store.
