Inside WCS: Build Your Own Website Workshop

The Workshop

On the evening of November 5th in a classroom in Siebel, the Explorations Committee put on the “Make Your Own Website” Workshop. After a short ice breaker, the committee members covered the uses of a personal website and how to get started on making one. They then started on an overview HTML and CSS, and the basics of styling and creating a static website. The workshop used an intuitive Relp.it to show an interactive model of how CSS styles a website, and what different HTML scripting tags produce on a website.

After that, the workshop began a guided section, where participants selected a HTML/CSS template to begin drafting their own website. From there, the workshop covered the daunting task of teaching Javascript, and the basics of React. Following along, the workshop participants created example modules and interactive elements for the draft that was began earlier. The workshop closed off with links to further reading and an open question section.

The workshop was impressively informative in the short time allotted, and almost every participant agreed that it gave a great jumping off point to making their own website without overwhelming them.

Interviews

Anonymous WCS Member and male non-member friend

Q: Have you all made a website before?

A: “No we haven’t, but we really liked what the workshop offered… we didn’t know that templates existed which makes this a lot easier than we first thought.”

Friend A: “Yeah the template is something I didn’t know about, really glad I know now”

Social Committee Member — Mia

Mia: “It [the event] was really cool! I definitely plan on making a new website… [even though] I haven’t done web development before.”

Workshop Presenter — Shreya Vinjamuri

Q: Overall, how do you think the workshop went

A: It was good, I thought we had a lot of good engagement. I also thought the ice breakers were really fun”

Q: Did you like the turnout? Is there anything you think helped or didn’t help?

A: Doing events hybrid really helps increase turnout. [I think our] turnout was good and so was the engagement. I’m glad we kept everything to an hour, but the time crunch was real. I know for my section I had to zoom through things.

Q: What do you think of using live website services like Notion Publish, Obsidian Pages, or some similar service?

A: I think its important to get yourself out there… to get started, in the long run you should make something [your website] your own thing.

Q: How important do you think a personal website is to career prospects?

A: [Laughing] it depends, but that is the question. [I personally think] it’s not going get you a job, it may, but it may not. It’s good for your personal branding, to have something to point at , which is definitely valuable. But [I think] it should be a personal project, fun personal project.