The story
The year was 2018 and ASME chapter was in great shape. We were getting invited to institutions across the state to conduct induction sessions for student chapters that wished to replicate our model. I felt the need to have a portfolio website that showcased various student activities in my department. The idea was to use the platform to reach out to recruiters, build industry connections, celebrate the student community, and motivate more students to volunteer for learning additional skills. And so, I got the permissions from the Head of the Department and started working on a simple WordPress website. When the layout and plans were ready, it was time to get other students involved. Drawing from my past internships and experience in content marketing, I put together a manual for training a team.
I trained a team of 50 students in various aspects of website building and content marketing like WordPress website development, content creation, social media marketing, graphics designing, database creation, etc. I envisioned these skills being passed down over the years and the students benefiting from the activities. So from the start, the goal was to install a system that ensures knowledge and skill transfer across the years.
In a couple of months, we had a fully functioning portfolio website with an active blog and social media channels all managed by the students. The portfolio website was a tremendous success and for the subsequent phases, we implemented a library for notes, an alumni network, club pages, and even a services section where we offered to conduct induction programs.