D rake Semchyshyn turned a personal pain point at school into an award-winning app.
The Blue Valley West senior created Catalyst — designed to improve students’ academic experience within Canvas, a widely used learning management system — winning the 2025 Congressional App Challenge for Kansas’ Third District.
“The Canvas student application basically manages grades, assignments, submissions, and communication with teachers,” Semchyshyn explained. “The current application — at least in my opinion — has some flaws. It’s a little bit hard to use, and especially for students, there’s some deadlines that you might miss otherwise.”…