A 17 year old high school student from Collegeville who has created the app MeetHere is a finalist in a global competition of startups, writes Diane Mastrull for Philly.com.

Manshu Sharma is a native of India who lives with his parents in Collegeville. He cofounded MeetHere over the summer with three other high school students from Texas, California, and Florida he met in July at the University of Pennsylvania’s Management and Technology Summer Institute.

He came up with the idea for the app when he was considering how to help friends meet up more easily. When users open the app, they can navigate to a “friends” screen where they can select the names of the friends they want to meet. The app then shows each person’s location and an option to suggest meeting for either food, fun, or study.

If his app wins, Sharma will get a free trip in March to Johannesburg, South Africa, to make a presentation to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress.

“Technology is seen as something that is driving us apart,” said Sharma. “This app is showing that technology is something that can help facilitate bringing us together.”

Read more about the award winning app at Philly.com by clicking here.