Schaerer created an app to help students study effectively.
Courtesy | Hillsdale Directory

A Hillsdale alumnus turned his passion for memorizing scripture into an app that students can use for studying.

William Schaerer ’16 created the app Swiftlit after using an online randomization tool to aid in memorizing out of order. 

“I used to use a random number generator to memorize a lot of scripture quickly,” Schaerer said. “I would actually memorize the verses out of order, so that the hook to memorize would be the number.”

He took this idea and turned it into a memorization feature on Swiftlit, which he released for IPhone users this March. Users can input data and quiz themselves on terms and definitions, as well as large chunks of text.

Schaerer’s wife, Chelsea Schaerer, said she uses the flashcard tool in Swiftlit to memorize scripture.

“I’ve been able to memorize a couple chapters so far,” she said. “There are multiple options, including hiding words, seeing only the first letter of each word, and taking verses out of order.”

William Schaerer said he uses vibe coding through Gemini to program the app. Vibe coding, a term coined by coder Andrej Keparthy, is a programming technique in which people use AI to help write lines of code.

As a manager at the Hillsdale College Contact Center, William Schaerer started to think about how this concept could help the students he works with. William Schaerer said the reading pacer feature could be especially helpful to students.

“When I was assigned a 350-page book in school, I had a hard time figuring out how to pace myself,” William Schaerer said. “I eventually found a really annoying beep and put it on a minute loop.”

The reading pacer in Swiftlit is similar. Users can select the amount of pages they want to read and the amount of time they want to read them in, and a noise will sound at an interval so they can pace themselves.

Senior Alayna Schoepp, one of William Schaerer’s employees at the Contact Center, said the reading pacer is one of her favorite features.

“At a school where we have so much reading homework and it’s easy to get distracted, I could see it really coming in handy,” Schoepp said.

Chelsea Schaerer said William Schaerer first told her about his ideas for the app last summer and while she had previously never heard of vibe coding, was interested to see how it would turn out.

“It’s been so fun to see his creativity come out,” she said. “He has gotten to use gifts I didn’t even know he had. It’s been a lot of work, but I can tell it’s been very rewarding.”

The app is free, but users can buy a pro version with even more features, including special sound effects, a timer for brewing coffee, and spaced repetition for flashcards and memorization.

William Schaerer said he is tailoring the app to himself and things he enjoys. He said he added the coffee timer to make the app more personalized and fun.

William Schaerer said he plans to continue working on the app to add more features. His biggest goal at the moment is making it available to Android users.

Schoepp said she has enjoyed seeing the app improve over time.

“Will started mentioning it at work a couple months ago,” Schoepp said. “He would check in every couple weeks to show us new ideas he had come up with or any progress that he’d made. I’m so excited that he has officially launched it.”

Schopp said she thinks the app has great potential for memorization projects.

“It’s designed for memorization,” Schopp said. “The different options for memorizing chunks of text would be great for scripture memorization, learning poetry, or memorizing lines for a play.”

Chelsea Schaerer said William Schaerer wants to help people with his work and to have fun while doing it.

“His desire was to make an app that would bring glory to God and be a blessing to students,” she said.