Why Apps for Impact — Our Story

Throughout high school, Nick looked for opportunities where technology could solve real problems affecting people, communities, and the environment. Every project started with a real experience, a conversation, or a challenge that deserved a better solution. That philosophy has shaped every app created through Apps for Impact.

NurdleTurtle began after Nick discovered tiny plastic pellets, called nurdles, scattered along local beaches and railroad tracks. Learning that billions of these pellets escape into the environment each year led him to ask a simple question: What if cleaning up plastic pollution worked more like the gig economy? Rather than relying only on volunteers, NurdleTurtle rewards people for collecting plastic waste while providing businesses, nonprofits, and communities with measurable environmental impact. The goal is to make protecting our oceans something anyone can participate in — and be recognized for.

Mobility First was inspired by something much more personal. After watching his grandfather suffer a fracture, Nick realized that the greatest danger was often not the broken bone itself, but the loss of mobility that followed. While researching modern orthopedic care during an internship in the orthopedic industry, he discovered that many older adults and their families are never fully informed about treatment options that may help preserve independence and improve recovery. Mobility First was created to educate families, encourage informed conversations with physicians, and promote the idea that maintaining mobility should remain a central goal of fracture care whenever medically appropriate.

Scripty grew out of Nick's lifelong love of history and a memorable conversation with one of his history professors. During class, the professor expressed concern that fewer students are being taught cursive writing and wondered what that would mean for future generations trying to study original historical documents. If people can no longer read handwritten letters, journals, diaries, and government records, an important connection to history could gradually be lost.

The best ideas rarely begin with technology — they begin with paying attention.

That conversation stayed with Nick. Rather than accepting it as an inevitable problem, he saw an opportunity to use artificial intelligence to preserve access to the past. Scripty was created to transcribe, translate, and explain handwritten historical documents, making them more accessible to students, educators, museums, genealogists, and anyone with a curiosity about history.

Although these projects address very different challenges, they all share the same foundation: look closely, ask better questions, build practical solutions, and measure real impact.

Nick's vision for Apps for Impact is to become more than a collection of apps. He hopes it will grow into a community where students, developers, educators, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs share ideas, collaborate across disciplines, and inspire one another to build technology that improves lives. Whether the challenge is preserving history, protecting the environment, improving healthcare, or solving an entirely different problem, Apps for Impact exists to encourage people to turn meaningful ideas into meaningful action.

The next app that changes someone's life could begin with a simple observation — and one person deciding to do something about it.