Buckley Grams

2020-2022

When the pandemic brought high school classes online, I built a fleet of websites to virtualize long-standing school gram/message-exchange traditions and bring back the sense of community we were missing.

Once live, the websites allowed students and teachers to send (optionally anonymous) messages to each other. The Programming Club deployed three versions throughout the year: one for Thanksgiving, one for Valentine's Day, and one for Teachers' Appreciation Day. Arguably more popular than the valentine-sending feature was our “compatibility tester,” which allowed website viewers to magically (a.k.a. via a fun hashing algorithm) uncover two inputted names’ percent “compatibility”. For weeks, tester screenshots saturated group chats across every grade. It was incredible to see the school community unified around something so simple and random. I’m glad I could help facilitate a sense of community amidst our isolating days online.

Tools

• React
• Gatsby
• Firebase
• Netlify
• Gmail SMTP

Gallery

Here are a few captures from the Valentine's Day deployment.