Alva Review-Courier -

Medha Gupta sometimes felt uneasy making the 20-minute walk from the corner where the school bus dropped her off to her home in Herndon, Va. — especially during the colder months, when it would get dark early.

Her mother had a suggestion: Write an app.

Divya Gupta was half-kidding, but Medha, a sophomore at Fairfax County's Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, took the challenge seriously.

So she went to work.

"I knew I had a problem I needed to solve," said Medha, 16.

The result was Safe Travel, an app designed by Medha to help commuters feel more secure when traveling alo...