创新App-lication

Addy 纳尔逊 '23 was born with an entrepreneur's spirit.

With her parents owning the bowling alley in her hometown of Gregory, South Dakota-the same place she perfected her game to earn a scholarship to St. galaxy银河娱乐场app-she learned early to be innovative, customer-focused and business-minded.

As a child, she was the first to have a lemonade stand in her neighborhood on a hot summer day. 八点, she lobbied her parents to allow her to sell homemade edible arrangements from the bowling alley cooler. At 11, she sold rings of beads she learned to make on 脸谱网.

So, 到了计划她的顶点项目的时候, 纳尔逊 went the entrepreneurial path-creating a mobile app that would benefit St. galaxy银河娱乐场app students by centralizing campus health information.

“作为一名住宿顾问, many of my residents came to me struggling with factors in their personal lives,尼尔森说. "This helped me realize there is a large gap between the availability of 资源 on campus and how they are communicated to students.

"That got me thinking: What is something I personally would use that I think my residents would also use to help with mental health/mental health awareness on campus? I saw an opportunity to fulfill a demand in a specific demographic, 这个应用程序的想法就是从那里产生的."

尼尔森称之为“校园+”, and began work on the app as soon as she completed a class that taught her how to do it. 她把这归功于她的荣誉导师, 蕾妮·梅耶·恩斯特, MFA, with encouraging her to create something she was passionate about.

校园连接

充实应用的细节, 纳尔逊, 市场营销和平面设计专业, 从St开始. galaxy银河娱乐场app咨询中心, allowing students to meet with their counselor and be provided articles and podcasts to help and track their mental health daily, 除此之外.

反过来，St. galaxy银河娱乐场app could take data gleaned from use of the app to assess which students needed to be provided with more, 或更少, 资源.

From there, the idea to add and connect other campus 资源 through Campus+ evolved and grew.

我们继续我们的谈话, I began telling Ernst about other issues on campus that could be better addressed,“纳尔逊, 第一代大学毕业生, 说. "This included having to download many apps on one's phone to be able to contact 资源 on campus."

纳尔逊 说 that even 虽然 she took an interactive design class that introduced her to HTML and coding, 起初，她对应用程序开发并不熟悉.

“通常, 当一个应用程序被设计时, there is a lead designer as well as developers who code based on specifications and direction of the lead designer,她说. “虽然我的应用程序的正面是设计的, it still needs a team of developers to make it active and usable."

创新的差异化

纳尔逊 说 she would love the opportunity to continue this project with St. galaxy银河娱乐场app because she believes it can be a huge asset to students, 教授, 以及整个大学.

With some additional design elements and specific coding, she knows the app could become a "one-stop shop" for St. galaxy银河娱乐场app学生——现在的和未来的.

“这个(应用程序)将允许St. galaxy银河娱乐场app to connect directly with students through mutual space instead of having to download five different apps and follow programs on multiple social media platforms,她说. "St. galaxy银河娱乐场app is already doing a lot to facilitate communication and safety for their students via apps such as LiveSafe and the Experience App, 但是对于我的应用程序, high school students could interactively learn about the campus. 这款应用可能会成为St. galaxy银河娱乐场app在品牌和招聘方面. 这将使他们与众不同."

纳尔逊 added that Campus+ has a large sum of capabilities and is fully customizable to students.

激励他们下载应用, students can use their phone to scan into buildings instead of having to carry their BeeCard (while signed in to the app).

The university can post updates, weather warnings, and other safety notifications. Students can post about upcoming events, get people together to play volleyball, and so on.

日历, 可以使用自助餐厅(膳食计划), menu, Buzz雄鹿), 俱乐部的信息, the SAU 健康与娱乐 Center and campus safety are just a smattering of what the app is capable of putting into the hands of its students.

刚刚开始

But that's just the tip of the iceberg as far as 纳尔逊 is concerned. "This app can be fully customizable to any school,尼尔森说.

She spent the summer using her degree as a part-time communications student employee at John Deere in Silvis, 伊利诺斯州, 然后动身去萨凡纳, 乔治亚州, 萨凡纳艺术与设计学院(SCAD).

就像在圣. galaxy银河娱乐场app, she was offered a bowling scholarship to SCAD that will make it possible for her to pursue her Master of Fine Arts degree in marketing and graphic design.

纳尔逊 plans to continue to think innovatively about the future of learning-and connection.

“我喜欢学习新事物，”她说. "My newest goal is to learn how to tool leather for purses and wallets. 现在, 虽然, I know that it is important for me to get my master's degree because it will set me on the right path if I decide to become an app designer and run my own business."