From left to right: STLP Statewide Lead Jeff Sebulsky and Fairdale High School students Jacques Tuyizere, Aubrey McGinty, Duarsa Podvorica and Miranda Heuglin talk during a school visit with Kentucky Department of Education leaders to present their award for Best STLP Project in Kentucky for the 9-12 division. Photo by Fiona Morgan, Kentucky Department of Education, May 13, 2025
(LOUISVILLE, KY) – Fairdale High School (Jefferson County) students helped boost student participation in school activities through an application they created called the Paw Print.
Their Paw Print app uses a point system to reward students for attending school events and going to local businesses.
Miranda Heuglin, a recent graduate of Fairdale High School, explained that the project started with thinking about how they can solve a problem in their school. They realized most students attended only the more popular school events, and very few students attended lesser-known events such as bowling or cheer competitions.
“With our school and a lot of other schools, we noticed a lot of people go to football games and basketball games, but not a lot of people attend the quick recall matches or tennis or things like that,” Heuglin said. “So, we wanted to create a bridge for that gap (in event attendance) and solve that problem.”
Jacques Tuyizere, another recent graduate of Fairdale High School, explained they thought about some things that students love: games, apps on their phones, food and prizes. They connected those things, using food and prizes to incentivize participation. The group named the app Paw Print after their school mascot, which is a bulldog.
The Paw Print project is one of four in Kentucky that won an award at the 2025 Student Technology Leadership Program (STLP) State Championship.
The group members were Heuglin, Tuyizere, Aubrey McGinty and Duarsa Podvorica. All were seniors and everyone, except for Tuyizere, had participated in the STLP state event before.
Podvorica, Heuglin, McGinty and Tuyizere stand with their STLP award for Best 9-12 Project in Kentucky. Photo by David Couch, Kentucky Department of Education, May 13, 2025
The Student Technology Leadership Program is run by the Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE’s) Office of Education Technology. It uses project-based learning, technology utilization and digital content creation to empower student achievement.
The STLP State Championship event took place at Lexington’s Rupp Arena on April 23. It featured more than 500 K-12 schools from 107 school districts. Students competed in 20 live challenges, and more than 600 student teams presented their year-long, technology-based projects. Fairdale High School won Best STLP Project in Kentucky for the 9-12 division.
They created the app using Google Sites and students can sign up using their school email address. Students can add the app to the home screen on their cell phone.
Once on the app, students can fill out a form about what event they attended. To receive points for that event, students must provide picture proof they were there.
The group awards prizes to the top three students with the most points each month. At the end of the year, they give an overall grand prize. During the 2024-2025 school year, the grand prize was a $25 gift card to a local coffee shop.
The students had to get creative with how they funded the prizes. Each member of the group reached out to local businesses to pitch their proposals for partnerships. They partnered with Dairy Queen, the Floral Grind coffee shop and Fairdale Pizza. Students can receive points for going to these businesses, and the businesses can provide a prize for monthly winners.
“We’re a very community-based school around this town, so I think that our businesses were excited to work with us,” McGinty said.
The app displays a leaderboard showing which students have the most points. It also displays the point system, rules of the app and a calendar of upcoming school events.
The more popular activities give fewer points, and the less popular activities give more points. For example, students get five points for attending a basketball game or going to Dairy Queen. They can get 10 points for attending a softball game, going to the Floral Grind or getting accepted to a college or job.
Attending track meets, wrestling, tennis and music concerts awards 15 points; and bowling, quick recall, archery and cheer competitions award 20 points.
The group used Google Sheets to enter and keep track of points. Some of the monthly prize options include Fairdale High School t-shirts, gift cards and tickets to any school sporting event.
The group also created the app logo, graphics and leaderboard design all on their own. Tuyizere said each member had different skills and ideas that they brought to the project, which helped them see each other’s perspectives.
A printout of graphics from the Paw Print app showing how it works. Photo by Fiona Morgan, Kentucky Department of Education, May 13, 2025
In spreading the word about the app, they asked announcers at school sports games to remind attendees to enter their points in the app. The students also made a funny commercial video for the app to encourage their fellow students to use it.
Heuglin said the app was successful right off the bat, as they got many submissions in the first month. Almost 200 students participated throughout the year.
The school also saw increases in the number of students who attend less popular events. Heuglin, who played tennis, said she saw the difference in the crowd at matches throughout the season. In their STLP presentation, they included photos of tennis matches before the app launched and after students started using the app. Attendance increased significantly.
Podvorica said she loved seeing how many students got excited about the app and also loved the process of creating it.
“I loved seeing it grow from how it was just a thought, an idea that we had, and then we actually made it real,” Podvorica said. “I feel like we have such a tight bond and we helped each other out with everything. Everything we did, we did it together and pushed each other to our maximum limit.”
McGinty said she thinks their project stood out at STLP because any school can create something like the Paw Print and it involves the local community.
“It’s not just for our school, it can be throughout any community and any high school,” she said. “Anyone can create it and I think that’s what really stands out about it.”
Tuyizere, McGinty and Podvorica represented Fairdale High School and presented The Paw Print at the 2025 International Society for Technology in Education Conference in San Antonio, which is one of the world’s largest education technology gatherings. Photo courtesy Jeff Sebulsky, Kentucky Department of Education
David Couch, associate commissioner in the KDE Office of Education Technology, said he loves how the project involves so many people in and outside of the school.
“You always have a better environment if you get your students, teachers and community to be engaged,” Couch said. “The engagement is what impresses me about what you did.”
Couch said STLP projects help students develop leadership skills and other valuable life skills that help prepare them for next steps after school.
“When you win in Kentucky, you’re just not one of the best in the state, you’re one of the best in the nation,” Couch said. “People that have won this (award), whenever they go and compete in something else, they usually do very well.”
Fairdale STLP Leader Brian Quilen said new students will continue operating the Paw Print for the next school year. The STLP winners will teach new students how to operate the Paw Print.
Quilen said the school also saved a few thousand dollars for gift cards, vouchers and other prizes so the program can be even bigger next year.
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