Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/45361
MAKING A DIFFERENCE WANT THE LATEST NEWS about your school district right on your smartphone? Now there's an "app" for that — at least in one Bay Area school district, thanks to the inventiveness of two high school students. The Fremont Uni- fied School District students have created the first iPhone appli- cation for a school district in Califor- nia. Andrew Han and Sumukh Sridhara, both seniors at Mis- sion San Jose High School in Fremont, came up wi th the idea and ran with it, says Han's journalism teacher at the high school, Sandra Cohen. Students develop app for school district "I think it's fabulous," she says. "I was so impressed." The free app was launched with great fanfare — the two boys wore suits and ties and spoke in front of TV news cameras — at a school board meeting on Sept. 14. An official from Apple attended as well. More than 400 people downloaded the app, called "iFUSD," in the first two weeks. The story really began earlier this year when Han approached Cohen about creat- ing an app for the campus newspaper, The Smoke Signal, where Han is co-editor in chief. He teamed up with his friend Sridhara and soon, Cohen says, the app was being used "to send push notifications of breaking news and Web stories." But Han wanted to expand his app to serve the entire school district. "He decided it would just be a cool thing to do," Cohen marveled. Mission San Jose High School students, from left, Andrew Han and Sumukh Sridhara, along with parent volunteer Raj Barma, were honored for creating the iPhone app for Fremont Unified School District. As in any Silicon Valley start-up, they divided their duties based on their strengths: Han served as product manager and Sridhara as developer. They pitched Superintendent James Morris, who put them in touch with his people — Director of Technology John Krull and Horner Junior story continued on page 36 26 California Educator / October 2011