By Katie Vasquez
Two students at Our Lady of Peace School are using technology to help young people deepen their faith through a new app they created called Mass Reflection Buddy.
Sydney Fernandez, a seventh grader, and Izzy Fernandez, a sixth grader, spend plenty of time on their cell phones. But instead of using social media, the siblings developed an app designed to help tweens and teens connect with weekly Gospel readings and reflect on their emotions through faith.
“It says the Gospel verse for that week,” Sydney said. “Then it asks how you’re feeling. You’ll pick an emotion, and it will give you a simplified version and explain how you can relate the Gospel to your life.”
The app was created as an alternative to social media platforms.
“We created an alternate app for social media that would help them get closer to God,” Izzy said.
Their parents, AJ and Rosa Fernandez, do not allow their children to have social media accounts but encourage them to use technology in positive and productive ways.
“That’s kind of what the catalyst was for them to make this — to use the word of the Lord to help them figure out their feelings,” one parent said.
“As parents, in this day and age, I think it’s difficult to push back because your children are inevitably going to have access to technology,” the parent added. “It’s up to you to make sure that they’re accessing the correct types of technology.”
The brother-and-sister team developed the project for Our Lady of Peace School’s annual STREAM Fair, which focuses on science, technology, religion, engineering, arts and mathematics. Their project earned first place among seventh-grade entries.
The app took approximately two and a half months to create and is geared toward tweens and teens.
“We used an AI model to make the prototype,” Izzy said. “We learned how to make a detailed enough prompt for the AI so it could get it without having many mistakes.”
After completing the prototype, the siblings asked classmates and family members to test the app.
“There were a few questions, and they all said that it made them feel better and that they understood it,” Sydney said.
The students hope the app will help young people strengthen their relationship with God and better understand their faith.
“I feel like this can help them understand better and become closer to God,” one of the siblings said.
“We think that it’s important to stay close to God,” the other added.
Over the summer, Sydney and Izzy plan to explore making Mass Reflection Buddy available to a wider audience.