During my time in college, I had the privilege of being a member of the esteemed Business Fraternity "Alpha Kappa Psi," an experience that left an indelible mark on my personal and professional development. Through this fraternity, I not only cultivated invaluable business skills but also found a vibrant community of like-minded individuals, fostering friendships that endure to this day.

One aspect of my involvement in Alpha Kappa Psi that stands out is the opportunity I had to contribute to our promotional efforts through our fraternity's website. However, upon closer inspection, it became apparent that the website, residing on a server and domain associated with a defunct campus relic from the 90s, was sorely outdated. Recognizing the need for a modern digital presence to reflect our vibrant fraternity, I took it upon myself to advocate for a much-needed update.

After rallying support from fellow members and faculty, we successfully secured a new domain, TTUAkpsi.com, signaling a fresh start for our online presence. With this crucial foundation laid, I embarked on the arduous task of redesigning the website from the ground up.

Drawing upon my background in Computer Science and development experience, I swiftly crafted a sleek and user-friendly design that encapsulated the spirit of our fraternity. Presenting my proposal to the fraternity's leadership, I was met with enthusiasm and unanimous approval for the new direction.

With the design finalized, I delved into the coding phase, employing a blend of #CSS , #HTML , and #Javascript to bring our vision to life. The result was a dynamic and responsive website that not only showcased our fraternity's activities and values but also allowed for seamless updates and maintenance.

As time passed and my graduation approached, I knew it was essential to ensure the continuity of our digital presence for future generations of fraternity members. Handing over the reins to a promising young officer, I recognized the need for a more user-friendly platform that would accommodate varying levels of technical expertise.

Thus, we made the strategic decision to transition to a template-based system, providing a solid foundation for future administrators to build upon. While this meant departing from my original design, it ensured flexibility and scalability as our fraternity continued to evolve.

Today, our fraternity website stands as a testament to the collective efforts of past and present members, embodying our shared values and commitment to excellence. It looks like my efforts to revamp the chapter's website was not in vein. As the chapter quickly quadrupled their membership numbers due, in part, to an easy-to-navigate website now at their disposal for marketing. I invite you to explore our online home and discover the vibrant community that is Alpha Kappa Psi. You can visit it here: AKPsi TTU - Eta Theta Chapter

As much as I'd like to take full credit, I must acknowledge that none of this would have been possible without the support and encouragement of the organization's leaders, who entrusted me with the responsibility of revamping our online presence. A huge shoutout goes to them for their guidance and trust.

That being said, let's delve into how I contributed to the transformation of LifebridgeHealth, a prominent player in Baltimore, Maryland's hospital medical corridor.

Initially hired as a digital marketer, with a strong emphasis on web development, I quickly noticed that our organization was lagging behind competitors like MedStar and John Hopkins. Recognizing the need for a strategic overhaul, I was tasked by my manager, Justin Leggett, to propose a revamp.

The website was using an older #.net cms, which meant the mission would be tough considering I was not too familiar with #dotNet at the time, but I had a background in #java development, so it wasn't too much of a learning curve to adapt to the syntax. The next challenge came in cleaning up all of the data from old pages, forms, and data modules that had accumulated on the back-end for over a decade. I put together some pretty creative/complicated #sql queries to pull the data I needed on which pages were actually being utilized vs ones that hadn't been touched in ages. This was particularly a challenge because the table structure was a complete mess.

Original:

My Concept:

Drawing inspiration from the company's existing design, I pondered how to modernize it effectively. However, my initial concept was met with resistance as it was deemed too similar to the current design. It became evident that a complete reimagining of the website's functionality was required.

Over the course of the next year and a half, I collaborated with colleagues, iterating on designs and ideas until we arrived at a solution deemed worthy of implementation. Simultaneously, we undertook overhauls of our patient and physician portals to ensure a cohesive digital experience.

Finally, after much deliberation and effort, the new design was implemented on our dotNet-based platform. This endeavor demanded extensive custom development, leveraging JavaScript, MySQL modules for data retrieval, and various tools to ensure smooth operation on our Azure server.

Eventually, our organization decided to migrate to #Drupal as our CMS for hosting the website due to the need to delegate tasks to less technical team members. This required several additional months of brushing up on #php and learning the drupal code base and how things worked. Several custom custom Drupal blocks and modules were built and decoupled. And as a result, we have a much more robust and extendable platform to continue building and improving our digital front-door experience.

Here's the final result:

[Link: https://lifebridgehealth.org]

Unfortunately, none of my real-life friends shared my enthusiasm for joining my digital escapades. So, I turned to Reddit and other platforms to recruit members. After several months of effort, I had amassed a dedicated group of around 10 members.

This led to a flurry of promotional activities, including the creation of our first recruitment trailer on YouTube:

Our efforts caught the attention of Rockstar Games, the publisher of GTA, who featured us on the front page of their website not once, but three times! Here are some of the articles:

With our membership skyrocketing from a mere dozen to over 1000, I needed a way to manage the growing community. Thus, I utilized my Photoshop skills to design and launch a forum:

As the community continued to flourish, I realized I didn't want it to fade away with the game's popularity. So, I took the bold step of founding a new community: The Vice Gamers. This comprehensive community included its own forum, Discord server, and a subscription service offering premium benefits.

Powered by #WordPress, but heavily customized by yours truly, the Vice Gamers community thrived from 2014 to 2018:

Managing such a large and diverse community came with its fair share of challenges, including personality conflicts and disputes. It required patience, deliberation, and a lot of learning to keep the community thriving.

In 2020, amidst the pandemic, it was time for another website overhaul. This time, I opted for a more streamlined approach, beginning with concept art that was well-received by the community. Utilizing the usual front-end tools and languages – #HTML, #CSS, and #JavaScript – I was able to develop the new website in about a week:

Lots of years were spent building and perfecting the community experience. Everything from video promotions, custom development for the community, esports, podcasts. We did it all! Today, despite facing various setbacks and mass exoduses, the community remains intact as excitement builds for the release of the next Grand Theft Auto game in 2025.

Link: ViceGamers.com

GitHub: soon

This little venture of mine started out of boredom during the height of the global pandemic. While running my gaming community, we saw a spike in people who were creatives, such as my self, sharing their amazing work. It inspired me to have a separate group for them to share their work and discuss their crafts.

It took a while, but settled on the name “Vice Creators” because I wanted to have it tied loosely to the gaming community. And the fact of the matter is that most digital creators are also gamers. So it made sense.

The website you’re looking at now was initially built to serve that community. But unfortunately, the group lost some key support members and was no longer able to sustain itself. So priorities shifted for me, and I could no longer pour into the group the way I wanted to.

I did create a webpage for it, which currently borrows from the ViceGamers.com website with it’s use of structured #html, #css, and #javascript.

However, the group still exists. And there are a few loyal members who still frequently chat there. So, feel free to stop by if you’re on #discord and say hi!

Website: https://vicecreators.com

Github: coming soon

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/cGMksaSHNJ

I've been immersed in music creation since my teenage years, and by the time I hit 18, the itch to establish my own online presence and storefront had become undeniable. But here's the kicker: I was as clueless about web development as a fish out of water, and my wallet wasn't exactly overflowing with cash. So, like any determined soul would, I barricaded myself in a room for weeks on end, teaching myself the ABCs of #HTML and #CSS until I could stitch together some semblance of a web page.

Here's my first attempt (try not to laugh). It was 2006, and it was acceptable back then, or at least that's what I tell myself.

Two years later, armed with more web knowledge and some Adobe Flash and Photoshop skills, I revamped the site with an interactive Flash hero and a cool music player from SoundClick. People loved it in 2008.

Then, in 2011, fresh out of college, I realized it was high time for a complete site overhaul to keep up with evolving standards. Enter #Wordpress, my trusty sidekick, chosen for its user-friendly management and seamless integration for selling music directly on the site. But here's the kicker: I decided to roll up my sleeves and build the entire theme from scratch, diving headfirst into the realms of #PHP, #MySQL, and mastering HTML and CSS like a boss. It was a solid month of trial and error.

Life threw a few curveballs my way, leading me to take a hiatus from music for what felt like an eternity. But as they say, you can't keep a good musician down. So, with a renewed sense of purpose, I plunged back into the musical abyss—cue yet another website overhaul.

With a plethora of hosting options now at my fingertips, I found myself swimming in a sea of out-of-the-box solutions. Ultimately, I opted for a music-themed website template, albeit with hefty customizations and tweaks to both functionality and style. And voilà, behold the current iteration of BigNotch.com!