This project was part of a senior thesis, in which I published a book entitled “Stories Within” as well as creating a website, meant for future college students from a variety of backgrounds: first-gen students, low-income students, students from affluent backgrounds, POC students, etc. The book contains excerpts from current students who identify with these backgrounds, sharing their experiences, struggles, and progress. Seeing people with similar experiences to theirs provides incoming and current students with a sense of community. It allows them to connect with others in times of loneliness and encourages them to see others on campus in a new light. For this project, I recieved $2000 in funding for publishing, creating interview incentives, and paying a photographer.
The Stories Within project was comprised of 3 stages: research, interview, and writing stage.
Research
The preliminary stage consisted of planning and research prior to the collection of student experiences. In this stage, the I consulted with university professors to create a framework for student experience collection (SEC). Along with the publication of my bookm I also wrote a report linking students from marginalized communities with feelings of loneliness. Finally, I conducted a test round of SEC in order to analyze the effectiveness of our methods, in case improvements needed to be made for the following year’s execution stage.
The SEC method followeded a personal interview format. Willing participants were found via advertisements on social media and through student hubs such as the Kilachand Honors College and the Newbury Center. These students were asked to sign an informed consent form that was drafted and approved by a university professor. The interviews were loose discussions centered around general questions such as “What were you like in high school”, “How have you changed in your time at BU”, or “What advice would you give your younger self”. These questions aimed to engage participants with the subject matter on a personal level. These interviews were also more story-driven and expanded on personal experiences, which encouraged dialogue between students, in order to get more genuine answers.
Interview
The interview stage consisted of rounds of SEC that occurred over the span of the senior semester. Once the content was collected, it was stored for processing in the writing stage.
Advertising
This stage also included advertising for the project, which was planned in 3 waves, ensuring a constant stream of participants. The first wave of students came primarily through word of mouth. These students were explicitly asked to participate in an interview. The second round of advertising was established via email. Mass emails were sent to Kilchand students, with posters being displayed on Warren Towers TV, GSU, and some BU dorms. An Instagram page containing sample stories was also utilized to promote the book and encourage students to participate. The last wave included a website that students could access as stories were being published, allowing people to follow to project in real time.
Writing
In the writing stage, the content from the interviews were processed and made into a book, which were edited and revised for publication. This is also when the final draft of the research paper was released. The research paper described the observed relationship between marginalized students and loneliness and explained how a book like “Stories Within” helps such students.
Publishing
After a lot of research, I settled on BookBaby for printing the book. A 50 pg 8.5’ ྾ 8.5’ Hardcover Dust Jacket book with 80lb Gloss 455PPI 95 Opacity pages costs $1278.27 for 50 books, or $25.57 per book. There were a lot more options and much higher quality materials available with BookBaby. For these reasons, BookBaby was the most appealing option. The production and shipping for the books took about 10 days. Thus, in order for the project to be finished in time for the Senior Thesis Symposium, a rough draft of the book had to be submitted for publishing by Apr 5th, with a final draft submitted for publishing on Apr 15th.
Me and photographer Ruo Fei at the senior symposium holding the published book
Website
I developed storieswith.in, a dynamic web platform for Boston University’s Honors College using Astro framework. I architected the site with modular components and implemented custom JavaScript animations, including a unique scrolling system and built in cards for all student stories. I also built a responsive design system using Tailwind CSS with theme-switching capabilities and custom typography. Finally, I utilized an intuitive tag-based navigation system for story filtering and integrated SEO optimization for improved visibility, and engineered a smooth parallax effect and interactive elements to enhance user engagement while maintaining optimal performance through static site generation.
GitHub
Check out the GitHub here!