By Ayanna Thompson, Staff Writer

A Gallup poll from July 2015 showed that 51% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 years of age could not imagine living without their smartphones. With such a high percentage, there is no doubt that the smartphone has become an essential school supply for a college student. And universities like Armstrong are noticing how important the smartphone is to its student body.

In fact, there are a number of Armstrong related apps that all pirates are encouraged to The Armstrong Student Government Association (SGA) app helps students keep up with what is going on around campus.

SGA President, Matthias Downs said, “The SGA App is designed to be [SGA’s] way to ensure the students are aware of activities, important initiatives that we are conducting [and to] keep all of the students in the loop of what we are doing.”

President Downs says that the app also includes input from Armstrong’s Campus Union Board, which handles campus programming.

The app features a calendar of events as well. “Any student group on campus can put up their events to have [other] students see” President Downs said. Groups can add events to the calendar by contacting any member of SGA and filling out a form.

While the SGA App is considered to be easy to use, President Downs reminds students to “enable ‘push’ notifications” to ensure that they are utilizing the full benefits of the app. He also encourages student feedback.

“We want to make sure that we’re doing all that we can to make [the app] better for [the students]” President Downs said. For more information concerning the SGA app, email the SGA secretary at sga.secretary@armstrong.edu.

For students who like to cheer on our pirates, there is a new Pirate Rewards app. The Pirate Rewards app is accompanied by exciting award opportunities and quick access to game stats.

Here is how it works. After downloading the app, students can check-in at one of the pre-determined sports games. Students can earn points for each game that they attend. And once the points begin to accumulate, students can redeem them for a variety of rewards. Students can also see upcoming events posted by the athletics department on the event calendar on the SGA App as well.

For safety concerns, students should consider downloading the Pirate Guardian Personal Safety app. This app allows users to set a timer while they travel throughout campus. If the user does not check-in within the desired time period, the app will notify a designated guardian as well as

The app also allows students to submit anonymous tips and pictures to Armstrong police.

All of the mentioned apps can be found in both the Apple Store the Google Play Store. The apps are free and safe to download.