On April 23rd, Ian Mattingly (12th) and Tessa Montgomery (11th) were announced to be the STLP State winners of the UK State Coding Challenge and the Book Cover Redesign. They sat for an interview about their experience at STLP with Jacket Journal Staff. Here are their answers to a few questions regarding the competition.

What did you enter for?
Mattingly: “I entered STLP for several events, most notably with the UK Web Coding Challenge.”

Montgomery: “I entered STLP for the book cover redesign. Here is a photo of my work.”

Did you go to Rupp Arena for STLP? What were your thoughts?
Mattingly: “I did indeed go to Rupp for STLP. It was an interesting experience, obviously, with all of the people that were there. The web coding challenge was especially fun, since I had never coded in Scratch before and had no real idea of what I was doing. I’m glad that I was able to get a concept together and be functional in the way that I did in just an hour and a half. That’s certainly not a lot of time to make a game, at all.”

Montgomery: “I did not go to Rupp Arena for STLP.”

How do you feel about winning in your respective categories?
Mattingly: “I was surprised by it, honestly. The biggest thing that [the competition] showed was that everyone went through the same struggles I was going through, with the coding language. It showed that my way of creating the game was very time-efficient and productive, with the little details thought of. That’s something I’m proud that I managed to accomplish.”

Montgomery: “I was surprised that I won in my given category. I thought other book covers I’d seen were very well done but I also remembered I had spent quite a while on mine so I was ultimately proud it won.”

Congratulations Tessa and Ian! If you see them in the halls, be sure to congratulate them and if you’re interested in future STLP competitions, be sure to check in with the club’s sponsor, Mrs. Boss in Room 232!