Editor's note: This year we honored some of the brightest young minds in the Bay Area innovation sector as part of our Inno Under 25 feature. Check out all the profiles from this year's honorees here.
Before winning Apple’s Swift challenge for students earlier this year, Audrey Wang launched a different type of venture. During the early months of the pandemic, she started an educational nonprofit to connect students across two continents. The organization, Fast Fluency International Tutoring Program, allows students like herself that are based in the Bay Area to connect with and teach coding to other students who live in Taiwan.
Now 16 years old, Wang met Tim Cook after winning the tech giant’s student coding challenge. She developed an app called Theia that lets people explore synesthesia, which is a state of experiencing one sense through another such as associating a color with a word. Wang hasn’t launched the app publicly yet.
Audrey Wang
- Age: 16
- Education: Junior at Mission San Jose High School - Fremont
- Residence: Fremont
- Title: Founder of Theia and the Fast Fluency International Tutoring Program
- What they do: Developed an app and founded an educational non-profit for high school students in the U.S. and Taiwan
What do you enjoy about coding and building apps? There’s so much I enjoy about coding. It’s the exhilaration after I’ve been coding and honing a part or functionality for a long time. And just seeing when it works — it does what I want it to do. It is just so awesome to see all that hard work paid off. And when I see other people use it, and see the excitement they get from it, it also makes me happy and want to create a better app.
How long did it take you to finish building the app and how does it work? I started building it in March, and it took me around a month. I would say it was around 60 to 70 hours. There are a couple of components. The first one is like a drag and drop game which challenges the user to recognize graphemes, which are letters and numbers. The second part is a memory game which is like the popular memory card game. And the third part, you can explore some fun facts about synesthesia because there’s so many cool things about synesthesia.
Were you intimidated or nervous when you met Tim Cook? Surprisingly, I was not very nervous because he was such a chill and cool dude. And it was a surreal, amazing experience.
You also have a nonprofit. Where did this idea come from? I wanted more international students or marginalized students to be able to learn about computer science and mental health. So I have a team of over 30 high school students who teach international students about topics that they are passionate about. Our high school students can gain leadership skills. And students can benefit from learning these topics as well as bridging the cultures.
What are some must-have apps that you use? I can’t live without Spotify, Instagram or YouTube.
What are three qualities you have that have helped you be successful? The first one would definitely be grit, which is hard work and perseverance over a long period of time. The second one is caring, because I feel like when I really care and am passionate about a problem, I will definitely do my best to tackle that problem. And the third one is probably honesty or hard work, which also ties into grit.
