In Term 2, Redeemer Lutheran College entered two teams into the Amazon Get IT competition. This is a competition where students were given the task to create a functional App. After international success, the Amazon GetIT Competition was the inaugural competition in Australia introduced in 2023. From Redeemer's entry of our two teams, to the final result in this competition, the journey these Redeemer teams have taken is quite impressive!
We were delighted that from the Queensland State Competition both of our teams went forward into the National Competition. In the National Competition, students had to present a final pitch against other teams from around Australia to Amazon executives. In their pitch they had to show an updated version of the app and one of the Redeemer teams utilised Java coding to show a model of the app functioning. From this final pitch, the two Redeemer teams that were entered were able to achieve First and Second place awarding them the title of “Australia’s Amazon GetIT winners”.
Redeemer’s winning team consisted of Rishik Rawla, Zahara Osgood, Jessica Huang, Oliver Beames and Noah George. Since then, these students were published in Heels Magazine and these five students are now the Australian Ambassadors for the Amazon GetIT Competition. In the Australian Ambassador role, they will mentor students entering the 2024 competition, providing advice and expertise on App development. As this was the first year the competition has been held in Australia, they will forever be Australia’s first ambassadors. The team achieving Second Place were Sehaj Sidhu and Aishani Gothoskar, a commendable effort considering the calibre of students in a National Competition. “Joining the competition was fun and enjoyable and we experienced and tried new things that we’ve never done before,” said Zahara. “We are grateful and happy to have participated in the competition, and learned so much including how to work as a group to design an app that can change the world! The team and teachers provided a lot of guidance and help, which made the AWS GetIT competition a really great experience. We’re proud of the outstanding feedback we received from the judges, and of course our win!”
As part of their prize, the students were given Kindles and First and Second Place teams were invited to go to Amazon Headquarters for the day to meet with tech experts. The students had the opportunity to see new Amazon products that are being created. They got to see the coding involved in Amazon Fresh as well as using Artificial Intelligence to create Digital Art. They also got to meet with CEO’s and ask for advice about running a business and creating products. They also got to see how patents were created and Amazons Business Values.
Redeemer would like to recognise this outstanding achievement made by the students in both the First and Second Place positions in this National Competition! You can read the Heels Magazine feature by clicking the link below.