Inspiration.
Extracurriculars are so much more than just clubs for students to participate in. Cumulatively, they organize into a small society that involves different levels of operation. I soon grew to realize how complicated the operations are. From budget requests to event/fundraiser proposals, every detail is crucial in order to keep clubs running smoothly while maximizing student participation. As the leader of several clubs, I came to realize the difficulty for both the teachers and students to keep everything organized in one place. I am known to be fond of the creation of systems that tidy the disarray of things. With this new challenge posed to the school, I was inspired to integrate the various details needed to organize extracurriculars, which I believe will become convenient for the extracurricular coordinator, club leaders, and students seeking to join clubs. In addition to a club catalog, I believe it would also be helpful to create a handbook that guides students in
A bit of all three CAS stages.
Part 1. The importance of having a club catalog (investigation)
Although there are not necessarily listed “merits” for the creation of an extracurricular catalog, I learned to appreciate it during my college application process, during which I did research on several schools and was particularly interested in the student activities of each college. It was also then when I realized that KAS could very much benefit from something similar—a webpage where students can easily navigate through the different clubs offered here at KAS.
Part 2. Presentation of the Catalog (preparation + action)
Inspired by the KAS house website, I decided to try Google Sites to build the KAS Club Catalog.
Some pros of using Google Sites include:
- Friendly to non-coders
- Pre-built templates and color schemes
- Clear instructions from Google
- No need to pay for a domain
Some cons of using Google Sites include:
- Limiting in locating the elements to the user’s liking
- Lack of effects on fonts, boxes, and other elements
As a person who is interested in learning about coding but has not gotten the chance to do so, I am not necessarily tech-savvy. Therefore, Google Sites appears to be a fine option for this project.
My plan, for now, is to create a page for each individual club as shown in Image 2. However, this would create a dropdown menu where students would have difficulty selecting the desired page. Other difficulties include effectively categorizing the clubs, which may require help from the leader of each club.
I am confident in building this website since this is one of the strengths I have discovered when I single-handedly re-designed the STMUN website back in 2019 with Wix. Though without professional training on UI/UX, I believe I gained some hands-on experience in designing websites with the goal of making them as user-friendly as possible.
Part 3. Handbook (preparation + action)
Aside from a public catalog, I am also working on creating an internal handbook for KAS students and teachers with the hope of guiding them through the process of organizing extracurriculars. With my experience in creating manuals for MUN conferences, I identified my skill in aggregating information in the most concise form possible and designing them into an aesthetically pleasing format. In this extracurricular handbook, I intend to create it in a format that is friendly to students. In other words, with the growing popularity of Too Long; Didn’t Read (TL;DR) articles, I believe it would be the most convenient if the handbook was designed in the format of answering the frequently asked questions (FAQs). A rough sketch of the Table of Contents is provided in Image 3.
