In 2009, I was asked by the then Assistant Chancellor Antoinette Mongelli to be part of a small team to work on the social media, user experience, and website for this virtual center. (I mean small, we were a core team of five or six, so it felt like and operated like a start up within a giant university)
We built out and created the web, mobile, volunteer database interface, and all aspects of the experience students, staff and faculty were to have with the center on the virtual side. The site has since changed in look since we built, but it is still an open source wordpress based platform, with the volunteer engine and sharing systems integrated.
About the Center:
The Center was launched by its first project: UCLA Volunteer Day on September 22, 2009, which has become the nation’s largest service project for new university students. A project that began with 4,000 participants with eight service projects has grown to involve more than 8,000 UCLA community members at sites that reach every major community in the city.
The Volunteer Center has expanded to organize more than seven other unique annual programs and events that involve the greater Bruin community in civic engagement. And though its website and use of social media, the Center also serves as a hub for community planning material, how-to guides, recognition of community leadership, opportunities for volunteers to share their experience and connect with others, and access to an interactive database and calendar of volunteer opportunities in Los Angeles.
The Volunteer Center also serves as a model for the planning, design, implementation, and management of large-scale community projects that can be replicated by other universities, companies, and organizations.