Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - Three Kasson-Mantorville middle school students have been selected to take part in an upcoming prestigious event, thanks to a Mayo Clinic-related app they developed.  

The team of Rylee Melius, Lydia Mindermann and Andrea Richard is one of just four middle school teams from around the world that will compete in the annual Technovation Challenge finals. One of the other teams is also from the U.S. The other two are from India and Mexico.  Six high school teams will also compete in the event will be held June 25 in San Francisco. The winning team will receive $10,000 to take their app to market.

The KM team of 7th graders was one of the three middle schools and one high school from Minnesota that competed this past weekend in the semi-final round.

The KM team is called Furst Class, in honor of its sponsor at the middle school, teacher Sharie Furst.  The team is mentored by Kris Kendall, an IBM employee.  The team's app is called "Mayo Freetime," and its purposes include helping Mayo patients from outside of Rochester find their way around the area between medical appointments Rochester and to chat with others who are in similar situations. The K-M team's app could be adapted for other communities that have large medical campuses.

A video of the K-M girls explaining their app can be viewed on Technovation's website.

Technovation’s mission is to inspire and educate girls and women to solve real-world problems through technology.

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