Case study
SC Economics Volunteer Platform
Delivered and presented to SC Economics and partner nonprofits at the KTP Spring Symposium.
- Role:
- Backend developer
- Timeline:
- Jan 2026 - Apr 2026
- Stack:
- TypeScript, Next.js, React, Prisma, PostgreSQL, Neon
The problem
SC Economics needed one place for volunteers to apply, find events, and log hours, with separate tools for managers and administrators.
The backend had to protect staff actions, keep sign-ups and withdrawals consistent, and let each volunteer read only their own participation data.
Constraints and tradeoffs
Constraint
Three user tiers needed different permissions.
Decision
The proxy checks the Neon Auth session before protected pages load, and each staff route checks the user's role again before changing data.
Constraint
Team demos shared a database without risking production records.
Decision
Seed identifiers and a targeted unseed script remove only known demo records, leaving real volunteer data alone.
How it works
Next.js 16 serves the interface and route handlers. Neon Auth validates sessions, the proxy and API routes enforce staff roles, Prisma handles data access, and Neon Postgres stores applications, volunteers, events, sign-ups, and hours.
Product screens
