WolfKey: A Student Startup Story

Last year, Hugo Chung ’27 was sitting in Dr. Holowka’s room during Computer Science Club, talking with his peers. It’s common for students to start chat groups for classes, clubs, teams, and councils. There are emails and various social media channels to find out what was going on at school. However, it all felt very ad hoc and messy. What if, he thought, there was a central way to consolidate information? What if there was a way to bring the school closer together in one central place electronically?

With a startup founder’s vision and a programmer’s heart and verve, Hugo jumped right into coming up with a solution. He decided to create a mobile app called WolfKey. It would allow students to see schedules as well as ask and answer questions. For example, a student could easily see what days were ceremonial uniform days, and they would no longer have to search through emails. A talented programmer, Hugo had the skills to do the work, but he was racing against time. He programmed through the summer as he wanted to release the app before the start of school. Up to the last day before school started, he was still adding features like student timetables. 

And, like a startup, Hugo started to promote his app. At first, it was word of mouth as he had his circle of friends and peers used it. Then he talked to Mr. Johnston to promote it at grade assemblies. It’s growing and gaining traction. Like any good developer, Hugo is planning to add more features, such as lunch card storing and grade calculation or estimation.

Who knows what will happen with Hugo’s app in the future? That remains to be seen. But the WPGA ethos of inquiry, action and joy is embedded in this student’s story. Regardless of the outcome, we’re cheering on this process of what we do and what we encourage at this school, and we’re cheering for Hugo.

You can download WolfKey from the Apple App Store.