Sat · June 13 · 2026 1:00 — 5:00 PM New Castle Community Center

Chappaqua Youth Mental Health Hackathon

Teen minds, teen solutions.

A 4-hour design sprint where high-schoolers turn ideas into real initiatives for youth mental health — judged by community leaders, mental health professionals, and social innovation experts. Compete for the opportunity to implement your idea throughout New Castle.

Register your team → What's a hackathon?
4hr
Build window
3–5
TEAM MEMBERS
$+
Cash prizes
1
Pitch to judges
Built by teens ✦ for teens ✦ Mental Health Awareness Month ✦ awareness → action ✦ 2 hours, 1 idea, real impact ✦
The Idea

Hack for Health.

1 in 5 youth face mental health challenges, but together, we can change that. Join our Youth Mental Health Innovation Hackathon to design bold, creative solutions that support teen wellness and wellbeing. Lots of mental health programs are designed for teens — this one is designed by them. Form a team, build your idea, pitch your vision to our panel of expert judges and compete for the opportunity to implement your idea throughout New Castle.

The biggest issues in our community
01

Stigma & help-seeking

Many teens who are struggling don't reach out because they fear judgment — from peers, parents, and their community.

02

Peer support & connection

Teens are often the first to notice when a friend is struggling, but don't know how to help or where to point them.

03

Awareness & education

Parents, teachers, and community members often miss the early warning signs of mental health struggles in the young people around them.

04

Access to local resources

Many teens in our community don't know what mental health support is available locally, or how to take that first step toward getting it.

The Brief

Five pieces every pitch needs.

Your team picks any angle on teen mental health — anxiety, sleep, social media, loneliness, transitions, anything. By 3 PM, your pitch deck has to answer all five of these clearly enough that the town could implement it.

01

The problem

Be specific. "Stress" is too broad — "Sunday-night dread before a packed AP week" is a problem.

02

The audience

Who exactly is this for? Freshmen? Athletes? Students new to the district?

03

The solution

What's the actual thing — a club, an app, a workshop, a peer program, a campaign?

04

The plan

Steps and timeline. What happens week one? Month one? Who runs it?

05

The metric

How will you know it worked? One clean, measurable outcome beats five fuzzy ones.

PDF

Judging rubric

Exactly how the judges will score your pitch. Read it before you start building.

Open rubric →
The Day

Hackathon Schedule.

1:00

Welcome & introductions

Doors open at the New Castle Community Center. Quick welcome, meet the judges, and walk through the rubric your team will be scored against.

1:00 – 1:20 PM
1:20

Team ideation & pitch development

The main event. Two hours of heads-down work — scope a problem, design a response, build out the pitch. Mentors circulate to unstick teams.

1:20 – 3:20 PM · 2 hrs
3:20

Pitch presentations (judging period)

Every team gets the floor. Bring whatever helps you tell it — slides, sketches, a rough demo. Judges ask questions and score in real time.

3:20 – 4:30 PM
4:30

Award ceremony

Top three teams announced and prizes presented to the winning teams.

4:30 – 5:00 PM
Top 3

Real prizes for real ideas.

1
Student Awards · 1st Place

Innovation Award

For the team with the boldest, most original take on a teen mental-health problem.

✓ $500 Prize
✓ Certificate of recognition
2
Student Awards · Community Impact Award

Greatest Potential for Community Impact

For the team whose idea would most clearly move the needle for our community.

✓ $350 Prize
✓ Certificate of recognition
3
Student Awards · Feasibility Award

Best Feasibility Solution

For the team whose idea is most clearly buildable — a real plan, real steps, real next moves.

✓ $250 Prize
✓ Certificate of recognition
Beyond the prizes

Pitch to the people who can actually build it.

Winning teams will have the opportunity to pitch their initiatives to the New Castle Mental Resilience Committee and work directly with them to bring those ideas to life across New Castle.

Results

2026 Winners.

MindPlan team — 1st place
1
1st Place · Innovation Award

MindPlan

App for students' academic management, using AI to build free time into schedules to minimize burnout.

Sophia Wang, Adela Wang, Anika Gursahani
Kinnect team — 2nd place
2
2nd Place · Community Impact Award

Kinnect

Initiative to connect injured high school athletes with college athletes who have gone through the same injury.

Eli Rickles, Bradley Martin
Phone-Free Nights team — 3rd place
3
3rd Place · Feasibility Award

Phone-Free Nights

A 30-day challenge for rising high school freshmen to put their phones outside their rooms at night to support better sleep.

Srihaan Seelam, David Allen
The Panel

Pitching to people who can actually help.

Three judges from the worlds of clinical psychology, mental-health advocacy, and social innovation will hear every team's pitch and help shape what gets built next.

Jen Naparstek Klein
Jen Naparstek Klein, Psy.D.
Clinical Psychologist

Adolescent and family mental health specialist. Clinical Director at the Counseling Center in Bronxville, NY. New Castle Board Liaison to the New Castle Mental Resilience Committee.

Stephanie Marquesano
Stephanie Marquesano, JD
Founder & President, The Harris Project

Founder and President of the harris project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing an integrated system of care for co-occurring disorders, the combination of mental health challenges and substance use issues. This includes prevention, education, treatment, and recovery efforts designed to best support youth, families, schools, and communities.

Sara Wheeler Smith
Sara Wheeler Smith, PhD
Management Faculty, Gabelli School of Business — Fordham University

Management professor at Fordham University's Gabelli School of Business and an independent consultant focused on creativity, innovation, and social impact.

Trice Hallac
Trice Hallac
Co-Chair, New Castle Committee for Mental Resilience

Community volunteer with a background in engineering and product development; currently serving as co-chair of the New Castle Committee for Mental Resilience.

Proudly supported by

Providing monetary awards and certificates for participating students.

Shahak Livne-Tarandach
Shahak Livne-Tarandach
Founder · Junior at Horace Greeley HS
email chaphackathon@gmail.com linkedin /in/ltshahak
Meet the Team

Hi, I'm Shahak.

I'm a junior at Horace Greeley High School and an award-winning student researcher at the Karkhanis Lab, where I conduct translational neuroscience research on how adolescent social isolation drives substance use disorder in rodent models. I'm also Vice President of Greeley DECA, where I co-developed Havenlock, an internationally recognized AI solution for Alzheimer's patients. I serve as an ambassador for The Harris Project, and a board member on the HereNow Teen Mental Health Advisory Board advocating for awareness around co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders — and I started this hackathon to put that mission in the hands of fellow teens.

Meet our organizing team

The students helping make it happen.

Jack Porter
Jack Porter
Operations
AJ Gargani
AJ Gargani
Operations
Callum Lee
Callum Lee
Fundraising Lead
Chelsea Ng
Chelsea Ng
Social Media
Alaina Price
Alaina Price
Social Media
Ari Goren
Ari Goren
Photography
Ari Perez-Hall
Ari Perez-Hall
Photography
Caroline Ivanov
Caroline Ivanov
Photography
FAQ

Things people ask.

Can't find what you're looking for? Message us @deca.hghs on instagram and we'll get you sorted.

Not at all. The whole point is that you live the experience of being a teen here. Designers, coders, athletes, artists, club kids, quiet kids — all welcome.

A laptop if you have one, something to write with, and an open mind. Snacks are on us.

Whatever helps you tell the story in 5 minutes — slides, a poster, a sketched-out flow. Judges care about clarity, not polish.

Two hours of heads-down build time, from 1:20 to 3:20 PM. That's not a limitation — it's the design. A short, hard deadline forces teams to cut the fluff, lock in on the real problem, and ship something they can actually pitch. You'll be surprised how much sharper your idea gets when the clock is running.

Open to current high-school students only — any grade, any district. Register as a group of 3–5.