Student-made app brings help to North Hills Community Outreach

Heather Oros’s sixth-grade gifted students at Shaler Area Elementary have helped the nonprofit North Hills Community Outreach (NHCO) before, with clothing and food drives.

But after Oros attended a Junior Achievement conference in November, she knew she wanted to adapt part of their business-development curriculum, so her kids could help the community on a deeper level.

This spring, 34 sixth graders and other Shaler students met once a week to learn NHCO’s mission and the world of nonprofit work—and take in some English and computer programming lessons at the same time.

“Our kids didn’t know all the services they provided,” says Oros about NHCO. “They were shocked … they didn’t see the connection to all the occupations.”

The students’ mission: create a product that will enhance NHCO’s overall mission.

By early May, the kids had 22 concepts that they presented to NHCO representatives on posters and through speeches, as if it were a science fair.

“All of them had fantastic ideas,” says Jennifer Drayton, NHCO’s development manager. But their best idea was a simple, free app that put all NHCO’s services at the communities’ fingertips. It gives users access to the organization’s Facebook and Twitter feeds, gave NHCO a new Instagram account, listed its phone numbers and provided maps to its many office locations.

“My favorite part is the maps feature,” says Drayton. “We have so many sites in the North Hills, but most people only know us from our main office. Now people know we are covering northern Allegheny County.

“An app seemed so far out of reach, but these kids made it happen,” she added. “They were so excited about what they got to create and they were so happy about it.”

The app will help NHCO reach out to potential donors, volunteers and service recipients. Drayton is also hoping its volunteers will now use Instagram to take photos at such places as NHCO’s community garden, to attract other people to step up.

A group of Oros’s students learned computer coding for the task, although she admits this particular app wasn’t a heavy programming task. Still, she says, “it was a great learning experience all around. There was a purpose behind it, and they felt all the hard work and effort was worth it, because it could be seen and used by people in their community.

“It wasn’t just their teacher teaching them something. It came to life.”