Looking for today’s lunch menu? What the school schedule is for the week? If the Grotto News has any new stories? Now the school has Basecamp, an app devoted to all things Lourdes.

Math and AP Computer Science  Teacher,Mr. Stephen Hernandez, and the members of the BaseCamp Team and CodeLAB Executive Board  buit  an accessible app for all students.  

BaseCamp team and the CodeLAB Club Executive Board could not think of a better day to launch their BaseCamp App than The school’s Feast Day, February 11.

“In 2018, the team and I had this vision to create an app centered for what the students needed,” Mr. Hernandez said. “ All the work is done after school and it started as a way to get students interested in coding. Coding was new at Lourdes, so the students came up with the ideas of what the app needed.”

The CodeLAB Executive board was led by seniors Amanda Paredes-Rioboo, Alexa Martell, Alissa Gonzalez-Mir, Claudia Gonzalez and Ana Serratos and they were aided by the BaseCamp Team, Margaux Courtney, Anastasia Gonzalez, Carolina Vazquez and junior Olivia Jo Lambert. Each student had a role in putting their visions to life with the guidance of Mr. Hernandez. 

“The app is a way for the students to have one app to organize all their classes and extracurriculars, get updates, and create an agenda. Instead of having everything you need to do in multiple places, it condenses it to one app to make it easier for Lourdes girls” Treasurer of CodeLAB Gonzalez said.

Junior Olivia Jo Lambert is the only underclass member of the BaseCamp Team and has been a member since freshman year.

“It’s been unreal, I remember joining and being amazed at so much code. I’m so happy to see people using the app and loving the features our team has worked so hard to develop”.

The app is a student-designed portal to showcase all things olla. There are pages for clubs, athletics, honors societies and student council as well as access to the weekly wire. The app also has links to download student-made apps.

The team put tremendous effort for 3 years into the process of brainstorming, designing and coding. The girls put in the work of designing and creating the most effective, unique, practical and secure app while Mr. Hernandez was in charge of all the coding. 

“I feel very proud of the work of the students in the long process of learning all the ins and outs and taking the app and installing it. It was a little nerve racking to make sure it worked. We had tested it out so many times, so we knew it was the right time,” Mr. Hernandez said. 

The purpose of this app  is to provide students with a simple software that organizes all of the OLLA information they require on a daily basis in one location. This app’s development team has put forth a lot of effort to make their vision a reality.

“The overall goal was to make something all students at OLLA could use to find school related information,” Lambert said. “Our goal is to create an app for students that updates and changes as students need to do.”