Compass

Student support, quickly — with campus-aware guidance.

About Compass

Compass helps students find the right support when multiple problems happen at once — academics, health, wellness, and logistics.

Multi-issue aware
Campus-adaptive
Plain-language friendly
Fast next steps

👥 Team

Built by a team that wanted student support to feel less overwhelming and more human.

P
Prerna
E
Evalyn
A
Ahin

💡 The Story Behind Compass

Compass was created from a simple observation: students rarely struggle with just one thing at a time.

You might be doing poorly on an exam, feeling sick, worrying about money, navigating a new relationship, and trying to figure out bus schedules — all in the same week. When that happens, most support systems don’t feel designed for real life. University websites are siloed. Health services are separate from academic support. Campus offices live in different parts of the internet. Students are forced to know exactly what category their problem fits into before they can even start looking for help.

But that’s not how stress works.

When someone types, “I’m falling behind in class and my ankle is injured and I need STI testing,” they aren’t thinking in categories. They’re thinking in overwhelm.

Compass was designed to respond the way a human support advisor might — by recognizing multiple needs at once and pointing students to all relevant resources in one place.


🧠 The Core Idea

Instead of making students navigate menus and drop-downs, Compass lets them describe what’s going on in plain language. The system then:

  • Detects multiple support categories from one prompt
  • Scores and ranks relevant intents
  • Returns campus-specific resources when a school is selected
  • Suggests nearby off-campus help when appropriate
  • Preserves chats so students can revisit guidance later

Compass doesn’t replace counselors, advisors, or campus services. It makes them easier to find — especially in moments when clarity is hard.


🎯 The Problem We Wanted to Solve

  • Students don’t always know which office handles their issue
  • Many problems overlap (academic + mental health + logistics)
  • Searching campus websites can be overwhelming
  • Students often delay seeking help because the process feels complicated

Compass reduces friction. Instead of asking “Which department do you need?” it asks: “What’s going on?”


🌱 What Makes Compass Different

Most support tools assume a single issue. Compass is intentionally built to detect multiple themes from one input and provide diverse recommendations.

Multi-issue aware
One prompt can return multiple categories.
Campus-adaptive
Shows on-campus offices when a campus is selected.
Low-friction
Students don’t need to know the “right” label first.
Saved guidance
Chats are saved and clickable to reopen later.

🎙 Voice Interaction

Compass includes an optional voice assistant powered by conversational AI. Students can speak naturally and hear responses out loud — making support feel more human and less overwhelming.

We added voice because moments of stress don’t always feel like typing moments. Sometimes it’s easier to just say what’s going on.

Built using a secure conversational AI agent embedded directly into our static site.


🔮 Looking Forward

  • Integrate directly with campus APIs
  • Show real-time office hours and availability
  • Offer appointment booking
  • Personalize based on student status
  • Provide anonymous usage analytics to improve campus support systems

At its core, Compass is about direction — not diagnosis. When everything feels scattered, Compass helps you take the next step.

🛠 Technologies

  • HTML/CSS — layout, styling, calm theme + dark mode
  • Vanilla JavaScript — intent detection + scoring + rendering
  • LocalStorage — saved chats that can be reopened
  • Geolocation API — improves nearby recommendations (optional)
  • Google Maps links — quick access to real nearby services