How our School App came to be!

Posted on 02/15/2019
St. Peter's Catholic Secondary School


Meet Noah Striker  - Gr. 11 Student (2018) and creator of our St. Peter's School App



Noah Striker was in Gr. 10 taking the Gr. 11 Leadership Class, in the fall of 2017.  As part of that class, he was given the opportunity to work on a 'passion project'.  As Noah had been a part of leadership at St. Peter's since Gr. 9, he was aware of the discussions surrounding the possibility of a School App.  There was some research done about various companies that offered school apps, and it was learned that they cost upwards to $3500.00 annually which we thought was not feasible.

As part of his 'Passion Project', Noah decided that he would take up the challenge of creating a school app.   He researched his project extensively and presented options of companies to go with, that were far cheaper.   

He had finally settled on using an app development software known as 'Shoutem'.   Noah began developing the app and inputting all of the information about our school etc...  After spending hours and days and weeks inputting information,  he learned that Apple had changed some rules to templated apps. 

Apple's widened ban on templated apps is wiping small businesses from the App Store. 

This resulted in ALL of Noah's work being deleted.  Our class was pretty much done by this time and by no means did Noah have to continue his work as he had been assessed along the way.   As disappointed as he was, he was determined to create an app for St. Peter's and researched another source.  

Noah was able to find another source to use, and he started back at square one in creating the app in the late Winter of 2018.  After countless hours of adding in text, logos, photos, links, etc., some roadblocks at having the app published in the iOS store, our app is finally here to be used.

Noah is currently a Gr. 11 student (2018), and he continues to work on ensuring that the app is user-friendly, efficient and a great communication tool.

He is an excellent example of a student/leader who pursues his goals and dreams and perseveres through any challenge.   He is a very quiet leader.  

The app would also not have been created without the help and support of Ms. Lemieux (Leadership Advisor), Mr. Bebie (Principal), Mrs. Stevenson (SMCDSB Communications Manager), Mr. P. Desrochie (Associate Director of Education Business & Finance), Ms. S. Olimer & Ms. C. McGuire (Controller of Finance / Purchasing)  and of course, Mr. T. Woods,  (Supervisor & Project Manager ICT Services).   Mr. Woods worked closely with us through all of the challenges faced getting the app into the App Store :)

 

We are grateful to Noah for all of his time and epertise!  Thank you Noah!!