Polaris - Peer Mentorship

Overview: Community Career Guidance at Northeastern University

Python | SQL | FlaskAPI | Streamlit

LINK

PURPOSE + PLANNING

Polaris allows students to connect with mentors that have experience finding co-ops, networking with employers, and establishing a career post-grad. Mentors and mentees are matched based on their area of study and interests, so that mentees receive advice from graduates working in their desired field with experience looking for the same co-ops and job opportunities.

This project was completed in a team of five.

PROCESS + LEARNING GOALS

Polaris is a mentorship matchmaking platform designed to guide students through their early career-building process. By pairing students with mentors who share their field of study and career interests, Polaris ensures that every mentee gets personalized, relevant advice—from someone who’s already walked the path they’re hoping to follow.

  • Performed user research to develop four distinct personas for the platform: Mentee, Mentor, Advisor and Employer
  • Constructed workflows and requirements based on the specific needs of each persona
  • Designed a pairing system that connects mentees with mentors based on academic background, career interests, and Northeastern college
  • Used ER diagrams to design and build a relational database architecture in MySQL to efficiently store and retrieve user profiles, job posting information, and career development resources
  • Created a streamlined user experience with Streamlit that allows students to easily navigate the product and use features like direct messaging, applying to jobs, and editing their profiles
  • Implemented a Flask API backend to facilitate a data pipeline between the frontend and the database