At Strathmore University, students were missing out on club and society activities due to one core issue: ineffective communication.

Despite a strong culture of extracurricular engagement, student involvement suffered because:

Communication was scattered across multiple platforms (email, WhatsApp, and Slack).

Students experienced email overload, leading to missed opportunities.

There were no event reminder features or centralized updates.

Clubs had no structured platform to engage and grow their communities.

This led to frustration, disorganization, and a lack of student participation.

We designed Strathmore Connects, a full-stack community web platform tailored to bring order to communication chaos and boost student engagement through a centralized, interactive space.

Replace email dependence with a centralized notification system

Give students and club admins tools to create, manage, and interact with communities

Simplify user experience with clean design and efficient backend performance

1. Research & Discovery

We interviewed students and administrators to identify key pain points in the current communication process. This informed our user stories and functional requirements.

2. Design & Planning

We used Agile methodology for rapid iteration. Our design phase included:

Use Case Diagrams – To visualize user flows

Entity Relationship Diagrams – For database modeling

System Sequence Diagrams – For user-system interaction logic

Wireframes – To layout pages and user interface expectations

3. Development

We built the platform using the MERN Stack (MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js), complemented by:

Firebase for media storage

JWT Authentication for user security

Bcrypt for encrypted password handling

Context API for managing frontend state

We separated roles for students, community heads, and admins, with tailored permissions:

Students could join communities, post, comment, and receive reminders.

Community heads could moderate content, create communities, and manage members.

Admins had system-wide control for oversight and moderation.

4. Testing & QA

We tested core functionality via Postman and created test cases for key features like:

User registration

Post creation

Community creation and management

Commenting

API security validation

We used Context APIs to sync frontend state with backend changes and ensured secure route access through middleware and JWT.

A scalable, intuitive social platform that replaced cluttered email chains with a clean, student-first interface

Improved club communication, member tracking, and event participation

Secure user authentication and modular architecture for future feature expansion

Role: Full-Stack Developer, UI/UX Lead Tech Stack: React, Node.js, MongoDB, Express.js, Firebase, JWT, Bcrypt, Postman Design Tools: Draw.io, Figma (for layout sketches), VS Code, GitHub

Strathmore Connects is a web-based community platform I co-developed to solve a real communication problem faced by students at Strathmore University. Due to fragmented messaging across email, WhatsApp, and Slack, many students were missing out on extracurricular opportunities, causing low engagement in clubs and societies.

We built a centralized platform using the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js) that allows students to discover, join, and engage with communities—all from one place. The system includes role-based access for students, community heads, and administrators, allowing for content posting, comment moderation, and event visibility.

To ensure a smooth and secure experience, we implemented:

We're now exploring AI-powered features like

Personalized club recommendations

Post summarization using NLP

Smart moderation for comments

Outcome: We replaced inefficient email chains with a vibrant social ecosystem, helping boost student participation and improve the university’s communication culture.

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