BCS Cares
A web-based volunteer portal for College Station / Bryan. An AI recommendation engine matches opportunities to students by availability, location, and skills.
What it is
A web-based volunteer portal for College Station / Bryan that uses an AI recommendation engine to match volunteer opportunities with students by availability, location, and listed skills. Mobile-first; works on desktop too.
What makes it special
Instead of browsing static listings, students see a personalized opportunity dashboard — opportunities are ranked by how well each one fits their profile, like a social-media feed for volunteering. Verified nonprofits are prioritized over unverified ones. Students earn verifiable service hours through QR-code check-in / check-out, with automatic Service Hour Certificate generation when a shift completes.
What it does
- For volunteers — Personalized opportunity dashboard, one-tap signup, QR-code check-in, automatic service-hour certificates, progression badges, profile + skill editing.
- For organizations — Create or join an org, post opportunities with shift scheduling, view applicants sorted by skill fit, accept volunteers (which auto-claims their shift), invite-link team management, manual verification flow for nonprofits.
- AI matching — Skill embeddings via OpenRouter rank opportunities against each volunteer's profile so the right people see the right work first.
- Notifications — Email + in-app inbox when new opportunities fit, when an upcoming shift approaches, and on signup acceptance / milestone events.
How it's built
A responsive Next.js + React + TypeScript app with a Tailwind CSS + Shadcn UI frontend and Framer Motion animations. The backend runs on Convex (database + server functions). Authentication via Google OAuth and WorkOS. External services: OpenRouter for AI embeddings, ProPublica Nonprofits API for EIN verification, Photon (Komoot) for geocoding, Resend for transactional email.
Progress
The team shipped three iterations. Iteration 1 stood up the web app, database schema, and Google OAuth signup. Iteration 2 overhauled the UI, added the AI recommendation engine, the notifications system (email + inbox), organization onboarding + verification, progression badges, profile editing, and QR-code check-in. Iteration 3 polished the recommendation engine, hardened authentication, and reduced UI clutter. The application is operational and deployed — anyone can sign up and use it.
The goal
To become something the BCS community uses beyond the semester.
