After the Los Angeles wildfires
in January, Marina Lee, 21, of L.A., felt inspired to create EvacuMate, an app that offers evacuation help, emergency resources, and more. The app—which she plans to release to the public soon—made her one of the winners of Apple’s Swift Student Challenge.
Q: Why did you make this app?
A: My grandma was in an evacuation zone in January. When she called me, she sounded overwhelmed and concerned about what to do. I realized others might be facing the same confusion and fear.
Q: What are some of the app’s main features?
A: There’s a checklist tracking system that lets users organize their important items to pack and a feature where they can upload copies of essential documents for safekeeping.
Q: How did you start coding?
A: In middle school, I joined a mentorship program that paired girls with female mentors in the tech industry. As a young girl, I didn’t know if I belonged in a tech field, but the experience made me feel more confident because I was supported.
Q: And you founded a hackathon* in high school?
A: Yes, we got over 1,000 attendees from 50 countries. I really value diversity and inclusion in the tech community. I want to make tech education more accessible to people.
*A hackathon is an event in which computer programmers collaborate intensively with one another over a relatively short period of time.
(This interview was edited and condensed for length and clarity.)