InternGh

InternGH puts every internship and program for UG students in one place, matched to your major, and WhatsApps you before the deadline, so you never find out too late.

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Inspiration

At the University of Ghana, internships, fellowships and training programs are everywhere and nowhere at once: buried in WhatsApp groups, LinkedIn posts, company pages and departmental notice boards. Too many of us hear about an opportunity the day after it closes, and few students know which programs actually fit their major. The students who lose out most are the ones outside well-connected circles. We wanted one place where every opportunity is sorted by major, and where nobody has to find out too late.

What it does

InternGH puts every opportunity a University of Ghana student could want in one place — and only shows you the ones that fit.

  • A feed that's actually for you. Sign in with your UG mail, pick your major and level, and instantly see the internships, fellowships, workshops and training programs you're eligible for, best matches first.
  • Never miss a deadline. Every listing has a live countdown, and saved ones show up in your personal deadline tracker.
  • Alerts on WhatsApp, where you already are. The moment something matching your major is posted, you get a WhatsApp message, plus a reminder 3 days and 1 day before it closes. No app to install, and it's light on data.
  • Everything you need to decide, at a glance. Pay, duration, start date, what you'll actually do, and what documents to prepare, then apply in one tap.
  • Find the right fit fast. Filter by paid or unpaid, Accra or remote, and how long it lasts.
  • A helper that does the hard part. Ask "What can a 200-level Statistics student apply to this semester?" and get a straight answer, then let it draft your cover letter.
  • Feels good to use. A clean, smooth design made for your phone, in light or dark mode.

How we built it

We built InternGH as a React + TypeScript web app (with Vite), designed mobile-first with a clean white look, smooth motion effects and a dark mode.

Students pick their major and level, and the app shows only the opportunities they're eligible for, ranked by how well they fit and how soon they close.

For alerts, we used the WhatsApp Cloud API from Meta. When a new listing is posted, the app finds every student whose major and level match and sends them a WhatsApp message. A daily scheduled job sends reminders before deadlines.

Everything runs on Vercel, with Upstash Redis storing student preferences and listings. We tested it with sample listings across 10 majors and simulated students before going live.

Challenges we ran into

  • WhatsApp's rules. Businesses can only message people freely within 24 hours of their last message; otherwise messages must use pre-approved templates. We had to design alerts around that.
  • Stopping spam. If anyone could publish a listing, anyone could mass-message students. We added a publisher code so only trusted partners can publish, and every published listing always alerts matching students.
  • Getting deadlines right. Reminders had to count calendar days in Ghana time, so "closes tomorrow" is always accurate.
  • Dark mode. We had to replace more than a hundred hard-coded colours without breaking the design.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • A complete flow, from sign-up to a matched WhatsApp alert to a deadline reminder.
  • Alerts that are fair and reliable: every eligible student is notified, and nobody gets the same message twice.
  • A polished, smooth interface that feels great on a phone.
  • Keeping students' data and our keys secure from the start.

What we learned

  • How the WhatsApp Cloud API works: templates, webhooks and the 24-hour messaging window.
  • How to build a backend with serverless functions and scheduled jobs.
  • That small design details make an app feel real and trustworthy.
  • That matching people to opportunities is as much about fairness as it is about code.

What's next for InternGh

  • Get our WhatsApp message templates approved, so alerts reach every subscribed student.
  • Partner with the UG career office and employers to bring in real listings.
  • Let students submit opportunities they find, checked by moderators.
  • Upgrade the assistant to a full AI model.
  • Expand to more majors and other Ghanaian universities.

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