Our app, CAPS or College Application Preparation for  Students, is designed to help high school students organize and stream line  their application process in a simple and free way. For at-risk  students, the app works as a communication device to contact their  social worker and track their progress. 

Through  the app users are able to search colleges, separate applications based  on what process is used, track their progress using checklists, and find  scholarships available to them. Once they create an account the app  will save all data and can easily be updated. Our studio is called  HEARTH, or Homeless Education Advocates Restoring The Hope. Two social  workers came in to talk to our group about the students they work with  in Polk County. We learned that one social worker can be assigned to  over 300 students and can sometimes not meet with them as often as she  hopes, especially to help juniors and seniors with complicated college  application. This means that the students either spend their limited  number of visits with their social worker filling out college  applications or have to complete them on their own. Our goal was to  design an app that will help students with the application process and  explain each step, but also help the social workers communicate with  each student and easily track the progress made. Currently there is no  application app that is user friendly and also free. There are other  models that are very expensive which we felt was unfair for those who  simply can’t afford to spend fifty dollars on an app. The free versions  were very basic and difficult to use. 

We used  MIT 2 App Inventor and an Android tablet to code and design the app. The  design process went quickly once we had the layout planned. We were  able to easily go back and make changes to modify the flow as our ideas  change. The app only allowed ten screens so we had to sit down and  combine multiple ideas to meet this requirement and still include  everything we wanted.