Inspiration
Our inspiration for AlanaConnect stems from the challenges faced by people of color, who often feel isolated in environments where they may be underrepresented. On campuses where a significant majority of the population is white—often 67% or more—it can be hard for students of color to find mentors who understand their experiences and challenges. We wanted to create a space that fosters connection and community, where students can learn from others who have walked similar paths. Our goal is to provide a platform for unconditional guidance, support, and shared experiences, helping students of color to feel empowered, understood, and less alone.
What it does
AlanaConnect is a mentorship platform that connects mentors and mentees in a safe, supportive environment. It enables users to find mentors or mentees based on their interests, college, field, or demographic preferences. Through AlanaConnect, mentees can receive guidance, professional advice, and resources tailored to their needs. The platform also supports personal growth by fostering connections that are sensitive to cultural and professional backgrounds. AlanaConnect is designed to make mentorship accessible, enriching, and mutually beneficial.
How we built it
We used Vue3 for the frontend ui component and firebase for our database to store all of our information.
Challenges we ran into
We ran into challenges using Google Firebase. It was a very large undertaking to learn a new cloud platform and get it working, including configuring the database correctly for reading and writing. Additionally, there were sometimes issues with Vue and ensuring that each of our components interacted properly with the database.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of creating this app in a very short amount of time. It was also the first time we all used Google Authentication and Google Firebase, which proved to be a large challenge but definitely a great learning experience. We also implemented many of the features we wanted in a very short amount of time, which is overall very exciting.
What we learned
We learned how to use many of Google’s cloud based services and how to integrate them into a web application. We also learned how to facilitate development of different features in a team and ensure that each team member was able to learn and make significant contributions to the project.
What's next for ALANAconnect
Next for ALANAconnect, we plan to add features that improve mentorship engagement and streamline communication. One goal is to integrate a scheduling tool to help mentors and mentees coordinate initial meetings seamlessly. We also envision a notes and messaging feature to track feedback and progress within the platform. Enhancing the bio and profile sections will allow users to showcase their skills and interests in more detail. These updates will help AlanaConnect better support mentorship by facilitating meaningful connections and structured goal tracking.
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