Mentorship App

Seeking new perspectives, reaching new heights. This app allows you to gain knowledge through booking appointments with mentors that help open your mind to a new perspective.

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Inspiration

My inspiration for this project was the experience I have had hunting for a mentor as I moved from India to the United States. Although I wasn't the first, I craved he idea of having to talk to someone who had gone through this and someone who could give me advice. The hunt for a mentor led into all of high school where I would make older friends to get advice, but was never able to find a mentor that could guide me in the right direction academically or not. Eventually, I realized that there was a gap between finding mentors and being connected with them. With that in mind, I made this platform to bridge the gap between finding and staying connected with mentors allowing individuals to learn new perspectives and open their mind.

What it does

This app serves as a platform for mentees (advice seekers) and mentors (advice givers) to connect the two types together and help form a community around this. Essentially, this platform has a few key features highlighted below:

  • The ability for mentees to find mentors from underrepresented communities (such as Females in STEM or Latinx in Tech) to find someone they can resonate with.
  • Chatting with mentors for free! Mentees and mentors have the ability to chat as much as they want regardless of whether they book an appointment.
  • Every mentor enters their schedule, allowing mentees to simply select the time that mentors are available, streamlining the process of finding available times and booking appointments.
  • A mentor has full control over who they mentor. They can choose to first chat with the mentee that has requested an appointment, or they could accept/reject the request sent. Follow-up messages are always allowed!
  • If the mentor charges at an hourly rate, the funds are held in escrow until the meeting is accepted by the mentor. If the meeting is rejected or not responded to in time, the mentee is issued a full refund.
  • Each mentor qualifies for badges that they can receive for aiding in a specific community or celebrating their individuality. Some badges including being a BiPoC Mentor, a Pride Mentor, a Female Mentor, and even a Volunteer Mentor.
  • Easy access to the calendar allows all users to quickly take a glance at their schedule for one day, week, or even a month.
  • Intuitive UI/UX design makes it easily accessible to read or call and hear for any disabled individuals. The contrasting colors and support for dark mode provides necessary support.

How we built it

I built this app with React Native in the frontend and Google Cloud in the backend as I leveraged the services it provides including authentication, database (NoSQL - Firestore), and storage (for images). I plan to continue developing this app further and integrate in-app calling through Twilio by leveraging the Programmable video/voice SDK that will allow for a powerful, scalable calling system.

Challenges we ran into

One huge challenge that I ran into was the lack of time which forced me to prioritize differently compared to a side project. I had to plan first, and design the scope of the platform in Figma which would allow me to get my idea out. After that, I finalized the design and started developing the frontend but did not go for pixel-perfect development considering the lack of time since I decided to have functional aspects of the app in there for users to check out such as chat, booking appointments, etc.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

One thing that I'm proud of is the idea of stepping out of my comfort zone. Throughout all of my previous hackathons, I have minimal experience with Google Cloud and none with React Native, but I knew that this was the perfect opportunity to get involved with new technologies and experiment with a new side to software development. I also attempted to design a mobile app for the first time on Figma which was super exciting and user-intuitive. I also decided to compete alone this time, for a change, to see how I would handle the workload myself and I'm proud of the way I was able to organize and prioritize to set myself up for the best chance of success.

What we learned

Aside from the nerdy technological topics that I learned about, I realized the true potential technology holds. Not only was I able to find a solution to a problem I have had for years, but in fact, I was able to build a platform that could potentially impact millions of people who feel isolated or abandoned and are seeking help. Especially considering the importance of having someone to look up to from an underrepresented community, highlighting mentors from these communities not only serves as motivation but also allows mentees to seek crucial advice that could help them throughout their life.

What's next for Mentorship App

The next step for Mentorship App will be tidying up the frontend design and working on finishing the full functionality of the platform to release an MVP. I believe that encouraging two sides to this platform will play a huge role in how successful it will be: on one side, this could serve as a tool for entrepreneurs or students to learn more; on the other side, we could see vast amounts of underrepresented communities find someone successful that they can interact with (hopefully at no charge!) to propel them in their dreams and careers. After perfecting the MVP, I hope to integrate a new side into this platform for allowing organizations to form where companies, schools, and other organizations can leverage this platform for themselves where they could have mentor-mentee programs within the organization. One example of this would be at the UW, where mentees and mentors would be able to connect via this platform by joining the UW organization inside the app.

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