Inspiration
Modern-day non-profit organizations are facing an unprecedented demand for their services, yet also being faced with dwindling resources. On the contrary, high school students are required to complete community service hours and are seeking new opportunities. WalthamConnect is the solution that bridges this gap and brings Waltham together by allowing students to gain experience and contribute to their communities while also benefiting the nonprofits in Waltham which in turn aids in the economic development of the city.
What it does
Our website offers an easily accessible and friendly online alternative to finding community service opportunities, allowing high schoolers to get more involved in the Waltham community. The user can use the search bar, which contains tags, allowing them to choose which nonprofits they are interested in volunteering for. They can sign up for different opportunities in their community and also request opportunities they are interested in.
How we built it
Through the use of HTML and CSS, we created static webpages as a baseline and model for the website. We built a frontend that has some of the main features we thought were important. If we were to continue with this project, we would add a backend to allow for user authentication, personalized recommendations, and deployment.
Challenges we ran into
- After finding out our initial idea was practically identical to Team Nexus' product, we decided it was best to switch approaches, even if we spent hours on the idea. We had to think of another issue that we could approach while still addressing the pinpoints of the WCOC.
- Given the circumstances, we were heavily limited on time as we had less than 24 hours to complete the website, slideshow, and video.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Our proudest accomplishment is bouncing back from the setback discussed above. We proudly believe that our final product represents the entrepreneurial spirit, as we brainstormed a unique idea that solves an important problem. We are proud of our product and our team as we managed to complete the project by working together effectively.
What we learned
What we first learned was how much need there is in the community as well as how we can have an impact. We also learned that developing a project is not easy, especially in a 48-hour timeframe. Despite its difficulty, deisHacks has allowed our group members to work in a collaborative environment as we learned to communicate with each other, work efficiently, and explore our creativity, an experience that will benefit our members greatly in the future.
What's next for WalthamConnect
In the future, we would love to progress this idea as mentioned earlier, and publically deploy the platform with added features for use by the Waltham Chamber of Commerce.
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