VolunteerU

Are you a student looking for student service learning hours? With just a few buttons, our website can seamlessly direct you to your next volunteer experience—with no paperwork required!

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Inspiration

Our team was inspired to build VolunteerU to make the process of earning student service learning hours a faster and painless process. We found ourselves losing the motivation to volunteer due to the tedious paperwork that seemed endless. We disliked consulting our counselor, receiving approval from the event organizers signature and consulting our counselor once more for final approval to volunteer. On top of that, we struggled to find volunteering events that were of our interest and were constantly disappointed when the opportunity conflicted with our schedule. To solve this issue, our team created VolunteerU in which students can effortlessly find volunteer opportunities best suited for their interests, location and schedule without filing paperwork.## What it does

How we built it

First, we brainstormed a list of current issues with possible solutions and narrowed it down to the best issue to solve. We then collaboratively worked on Figma to design the ins and outs of the website such as the functionality and the structure. While we continued to adjust the prototype on Figma, we began to code using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. We first coded the welcoming screen, followed by the login screen, the home screen and finally the location screen. Towards the end, we adjusted the colors and other decorative elements of the website.

Challenges we ran into

One major challenge we ran into was determining the best website to code on. We first began programming on Repl.it but we faced difficulty accessing more than one file at the same time and sharing the files. We then transpired to Code Sandbox where it was much easier to access two files siminiosntley and coded some portions of the website locally. In addition, we struggled to debug errors in the website and various problems with sharing the code with one another. Another issue we encountered was having little knowledge on HTML. CSS and JavaScript which made it difficult for us to code certain functions.During those times, we watched Youtube tutorials and read articles to resolve those problems.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

For many of our members, this was our first Hackathon and we are proud that we were able to develop a website even with our limited coding experiences.We’re proud that we could design and work with new applications such as Figma, Sandbox, and Repl.it is within a limited timeframe to design an interactive website. We faced many frustrations over the course of this journey but we are proud of ourselves for persevering through those obstacles. In addition, this project required a huge time dedication, and we’re satisfied with ourselves for devoting our weekends to establish a website that improves the lives of students.

What we learned

As beginners, we had minimal experience with applications such as Figma and collaborative working. Through this journey, our team explored and learned how to use the many features presented in Figma. For most of our team members, this was our first time working with a team to code and design a website with time constraints. Fortunately, through this experience, we learned how to effectively communicate with one another, bounce off ideas from each other, and work together to solve issues – such as some of us not being able to view our specific replit pages, and code errors.

What's next for VolunteerU

In the upcoming future, we hope to develop a VolunteerU for Volunteering organizers where organizers can add new events for students to join. In addition, we look forward to creating a “Log Hours'' screen where users can submit their completed volunteer hours to their registered events. We also hope to develop a verification system in which the organizer can verify submitted hours and manage events through an API system. In addition, We hope to create a responsive design to display a variety of device viewports for the rest of our pages and a “favorited events” page.

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