Mentor the Young
Multi-instance mentorship platform for 2,000+ participants
The Challenge
Mentor the Young was managing 2,000+ participants, events, and mentor-mentee pairings in spreadsheets that got refilled twice a year. Participants had to pinch and zoom through Excel cells on their phones to find who their mentor was, where the next event was happening, or when signups opened. Everything was there, but completely unusable on mobile.
The Solution
I built three connected web apps—one for the main Bulgarian program, one for Serbia, and an Alumni platform for past participants. All three work on phones, tablets, and desktops. Participants can browse events, find their mentor or mentee, access team contacts, and get to forms and resources. The Alumni app handles both Bulgarian and Serbian content with automatic language detection. Staff control everything from simple spreadsheet updates—no technical knowledge required.
How it works
Key features designed to solve the core problem.
Event Discovery & Management
Finding and engaging with program events
Search & Filters
Participants use a search bar and filters for event type, location, and signup status to find relevant events quickly.
Status-Based Event Cards
Staff set announcement statuses in the spreadsheet to control which events appear. Events show in custom brand colors (not standard Glide colors) and appear semi-transparent when disabled.
Event Detail Pages
Click into any event to see a hero section with date, time, and type, plus an interactive Google Maps embed, description, and buttons linking to Google Drive folders with photos, presentations, and videos. Events requiring signups show two-level tracking (open vs. coming soon) and a button to the external signup form.
Participant Network & Connections
Finding mentors, mentees, and alumni
Mentor/Mentee Directory
Participants toggle between separate mentor and mentee lists. Each card shows profile photo, name, mentoring area, and who they're paired with. Search by name or filter by mentoring area.
Profile Pages
Click into any profile to see full contact info with LinkedIn and Facebook buttons that open directly to their profiles, plus a card showing their paired mentor or mentee with the same details.
Alumni Platform
Past participants access an alumni-only app with expanded professional and personal info. The app detects which country you're in and shows Bulgarian or Serbian content automatically, with a manual toggle available to switch between the two. Alumni can fill out a dedicated mentorship request form where they describe their professional goals and specify what kind of mentor they're looking for.
Resources & Team Access
Supporting content and program information
Workshop Library
The Bulgarian app includes embedded YouTube videos grouped by topic so participants can watch recorded workshops directly in the app.
Team Hub
The 'More' section holds contact cards for founders and coordinators with Calendly links, a directory of partner workspaces where participants can work for free, and links to forms they need during the program.
News Updates
Staff post program announcements on a dedicated news page with author info, date, title, content, and images.