T E C H N O L O G Y

J O U R N A L I S M

Born in Brooklyn, NY

Based in Washington, D.C.

Concentration Tech News and App Development

Academic and Professional Background	Leighla-Marie “Leigh” Dantes is an American software engineer best known for winning the 2021 Congressional App Challenge with mental and physical health app “Olive”. Born in Brooklyn, NY in 2006, Dantes took a liking to computer science when she was just 10 years old in public school using Scratch by MIT. She would go on to create small projects and enjoy robotics, until she moved to Connecticut in May 2021 at the end of her freshman year in high school. In October 2021, her and a classmate competed in and won the Congressional App Challenge for Connecticut’s third district with a customizable mental and physical health app “Olive”. The app was made entirely with MIT App Inventor and is a prototype for a project that will soon be released. Following the Challenge, she was invited by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro to intern at her office and began her internship in September 2023. Dantes began attending Howard University as a computer science major and biology minor in August 2024 and became a CodePath Android App Developer in January 2025. After her freshman year of college, Dantes began her internship at Carillon Technologies, an aerospace company that specializes in phased array antennas. She led the company’s software engineering department and became both Python and Java certified as an engineer. Dantes is set to be an intern for Eli Lilly and Co. in the summer of 2026. She is currently creating her own projects with Android Studio, while also vigorously pursuing her studies.
Leigh Dantes is a Democrat. As she was growing up, Leigh Dantes was offered a lot of opportunities to express herself as a young programmer and person interested in technology; she participated in robotics club, tech challenges, and took as many computer-related classes as possible. However, as she got older, she realized that most other schools didn't have nearly as many resources. In general, a person's success and thought process greatly depends on where they were raised. This includes the behaviors they inherit as a result of their environment, what they consume physically/mentally, and the amount of resources they have access to. Dantes believes that the government has a civic duty to provide equal opportunities to its people, and they should be free to take advantage of these opportunities as they see fit.	Sociopolitical Ideology
Ideology and Journalism	In every nonfiction piece Dantes writes, she considers what is the main problem at hand. To follow, she also considers how an event illustrates, perpetuates, or solves the problem. To be a successful engineer, one must be able to find a problem and break it down into parts, understanding and conveying the scope of each issue and ways to solve it. This is how Dantes approaches her writing; in a way that can break down a subject and put it on display to be comprehended and to eventually take action. With each piece of writing, Dantes hopes to bring clarity, context, and concrete solutions to the world around her.