Denver teen invited to White House twice for excellence in tech

DENVER - This Denver 15-year-old will make you feel like you're underachieving, no matter who you are.

Anahi Gandara-Rodriguez is designing a smart cane for blind people, and this year she was invited to the White House twice to talk about it.

“Last year, I was one of the best in algebra class,” Gandara-Rodriguez said.

She’ll also tell you she's not the coolest or the most popular student at her Denver school, but she’s definitely one of the smartest.

“I'm making a smart cane for blind people that tells them when an object is coming towards them so the person can avoid it, the object and also avoid to have an accident,” she said.

Anahi attends HackSchool in Denver, an after school program within Denver Public Schools.

There students use technology to solve real community problems.

“Our long-term big picture mission is to transform education into a tool that communities can use to solve their own problems,” said Nathan Pai Schmitt, program’s co-founder and executive director. “It’s not enough that students are learning the information, which is amazing and knowledge is empowerment. We want to take that next step, where we can empower students who are still students to really make a big impact in their communities.”

Anahi said she taught herself how to write code for her project. It took her one week. When it's finished, she wants the cane to be available to everyone.

“I want to finish my project, manufacture it and sell it at lower price, so everybody can use it,” she said.

Anahi's smarts got her into the White House twice this year. She's one of 11 Kid Science Advisors to the President. 

“I think all people, everybody, doesn't depend on gender, you should follow your dreams and it will become true if you want to,” she said.

Now that is really smart.

Copyright 2016 KUSA