OUR STORY

The Hill Chat started in May of 2022 as a capstone project for Erick’s APCSA class. Although Erick wanted to create a quiz-styled web game for the project, Christian Blankenship, Erick's project partner, persuaded him into developing a chat room app instead. While Christian primarily led the project ideas, Erick took charge of the programming. When the app neared completion, it was given the name “Hill Chat”.


During the summer of 2022, Erick improved the chatroom's UI design, created a TicTacToe game, added the ability to send GIFs, and rewrote a notable portion of the code. The website was practically complete, so further work stalled until new circumstances emerged in August of 2023.


As his senior year began, Erick joined numerous clubs at Science Hill and learned of the countless opportunities he had missed by not joining these clubs earlier. Wishing to help other students avoid this mistake, he took initiatives to document as many clubs as possible. Making use of his programming, journalism, and content creation skills, Erick reinvented The Hill Chat into a top tier resource for student-led clubs and organizations at Science Hill.


With over forty distinct clubs offered at Science Hill, The Hill Chat seeks to make club information more accessible. Furthermore, considering the large size of the school, it can be difficult for school administrators to efficiently communicate information about school clubs and extracurriculars, so The Hill Chat seeks to offer a solution.