By Maddie Waldie '20

I decided to use this gift of time in quarantine to learn about the process of designing, creating and submitting apps by making a simple app of my own that raises awareness for a cause I’m passionate about.

As a member of Food Allergy Research and Education's (FARE's) Teen Advisory Group (TAG), I serve as an advocate and voice for teens and young adults with food allergies. Drawing on my own experiences living with life-threatening food allergies, I work to support legislation, create resources for the food allergic community, and was even a featured speaker at the Contains: Courage FARE Summit 2019.

People with food allergies are often put in awkward situations when they’re asked to go to parties or other social events, and they have to make sure the food and environment are safe for them. How to bring up this conversation can create a lot of anxiety and stress. I designed the Food Allergy iMessage Sticker Pack as an easy, fun, and light-hearted way for people to break the ice and bring attention to their food allergies. My sticker pack includes a set of more than 40 different stickers that people can drag into their messaging conversations on iPhone and iPad.

Before this year, I had absolutely no graphic design experience. But, thanks to Mr. Johnson’s class, I was able to use Adobe Illustrator to design all of the stickers myself. Then, I used Xcode, an iOS development platform, to create a simple messaging sticker app. I needed to research how to go about making the app, how to get myself set up as a registered developer with Apple, and how to submit the app for review and approval. I’m sure Ms. Burgio would be thrilled to know I even used a bit of economics I learned in her class throughout the process. Here is a link to the Sticker Pack on the App Store!

Now that I have learned the process with this simple app, I am hoping to move forward with more complex development. 

I’ve been mainly focused on computer science during my time at Notre Dame, taking AP Computer Science and serving as the programming lead on Team 1967, The Janksters. I plan to study computer science and engineering next year in college.