FLOURISH Olushola, a student at Colaiste Nano Nagle in Limerick City, intended to enter a national technology competition with an app designed to fight climate change when one of Ireland’s most tragic murders changed her plans.
She had developed an app to help combat climate change as her entry for Technovation, a competition where girls compete to create an app with a social enterprise function.
Flourish changed tack when she heard about Aishling Murphy’s death, deciding that she was going to be part of the change required to combat gender based violence.
Flourish’s new app, Whistleblower, educates users on the meaning of gender-based violence, how to combat it and where to go if you need help.
Flourish was supported by TeenTurn, who provide teenage girls the opportunity to gain hands-on STEM experience and the support to acquire qualifications and jobs.
Her hard work and enterprise paid off when she walked away with first prize in the Junior Division.
“I didn’t expect to win anything as it was my first time doing any sort of coding but I somehow managed to win first place in the junior division and I won a brand-new HP chromebook. I was over the moon.
“TeenTurn helped me so much through my Technovation journey from all their resources to connecting us to professional app developers,” she said.
There is no time to stand still as Flourish awaits the results from the Global Technovation competition and already has plans to make her app more secure by adding disguise features to protect users.
