PROJECT 180

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  Front

Inspiration

A friend of mine applied as an internship position at various tech companies around Sacramento. He had a 3.5 GPA, took high level math and programming classes such as data structures and differential equations. He was flat out rejected because he hadn't transferred and was deemed unworthy by recruiters. He faced severe depression as he was also low-income and living in a shared apartment with his entire family. He barely had enough to eat and would often eat instant ramen or unhealthy options like fast food. He tried to find jobs tutoring or waiting tables but was also turned down. Living off of the money he had saved, he managed to barely scrape by and attend college. He would often call me in long, late night gaming sessions to maybe cry or try to forget about everything over a league game. Gaming was his solace but wasn't a real option for him. He had to find a real job and fast.

His story is one of many community college students. Often times we come from disadvantaged backgrounds and have little advocacy or training to equip us to compete with other students entering the job market with more well-prepared and more traditional backgrounds.

Have you ever wondered why community college students face so much adversity, stigma, or marginalization? It's not lack of opportunity for sure. There are opportunities out there if you just know where to look. The real problem comes down to motivation, support, and gathering the right opportunities.

What it does

Project 180 utilizes a few Represented State Transfer Application Programming Interfaces (RESTapi's) and state tools to scour the web for opportunities which community college students are eligible for. We then further refine these opportunities using a python program or model which looks for dates and application time frames that are best suited for the user (a community college student). All they have to do is answer 5 questions and they get back a list of 5 opportunities that are best matched to them. The best part is, they don't have to be a computer science major or any STEM major to make use of Project 180. It'll work whether they're a STEM or non-STEM. For example, English majors will find a list of writing and journalism programs as well as one or two good advocacy links that might help them further their career and gain industry insight.

TL;DR Project 180's mission is to take downhill situations for community college students and bring them around 180 degrees in a new and positive direction.

Now I know what you're probably saying - Which is why would I want this, can't I just look through Google or some other search engine? Well you see, the trouble is, in reality not everyone has the time to, and often, one can get discouraged looking at programs which stipulate required prior experience or that are not community college student eligible. Which is really just stupid in my own opinion. The students in community college are very hard working people and they might just lack the resources necessary to be enrolled in a traditional 4-year university. After all folks, school, especially higher education in America is expensive.

How I built it

I constructed a barebones web app to serve as the front-end client and used Google Sheets to serve as a database for query values. We then utilize a API to receive CSV (Comma Separated Value file) from Google Sheets for processing. We also utilize Google Sheets to aggregate our results from our RESTapi's. I then utilize functions to search for the key word 'community college' and to confirm that the application dates are still available to our user at the time of the request. Having then refined our list of opportunities, we then construct a python model to process the Google sheets CSV file and return back job opportunities and resources that are relevant to California community college students.

Challenges I ran into

I originally wanted to be very ambitious with our project, utilizing a ML on IBMz instance and various other technologies/ platforms. However, as time became scarce, I decided that constructing a barebones, yet well-designed proof-concept would help my idea stand out because I felt it had the potential to create real impact and change and shouldn't just be given up on. I decided to keep going, I hit multiple walls with set-up for different environments, and around 5am I almost did, until I found what I was missing.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm proud to have been able to accomplish what I did in the short time frame that I had.

What we learned

RESTapis & Data Science on Google Cloud

What's next for PROJECT 180

I plan to fully flesh out PROJECT 180, finishing it as an actual platform to help CCC students find meaningful opportunities that will truly help their career.

Built With

• cloud
• google
• html
• javascript
• ml
• python
• restapi
• three.js