Leading the Notion community at uiuc
a reflection and some advice for the future campus leaders of the notion community.
One of the best experiences of my three years at UIUC has been the opportunity to lead a community for Notion lovers. I will forever cherish the best, the mishaps, and the memories that this org carries with me. I’ll discuss my thoughts, how it was to be a campus leader alongside my best friends, and some advice for future CLs. 💖
some lovely history
For some context, the tech community at uiuc is incredibly tight-knit. Many kitchen table talks with my roommates revealed that we think we’re all at least two degrees of separation from the entire computer science department despite there being thousands of us. You might not know a person, but chances are one of your friends does.
Through this web of connections and a couple of computer science clubs at uiuc, I met Bryan Ge, Riya Gupta, and Ridhi Chingakham. While Bryan and Ridhi are designers and Riya a software developer, they became a power group that had many perspectives on the community of Notion users.
As the original founders of notion @ uiuc, they created precedents for some of the best notion events we had in the past two years. 🎉
ellie as a member pov
I attended some of the coolest events during the 2022-2023 year. One of my favorites and core memories was New Year, New Notion, where Bryan and Riya led a social space at BrewLab Coffee to discuss and talk about our goals for the new year, and meet and socialize with Notion friends! I remember getting to meet students from different majors and genuinely being heard in a space surrounded by students from a multitude of fields.
204 squad 💖🚀
My college roommates (Eesha Barua and AG Samaniego) were one of the biggest supporters of not only my life but my academic success. The three of us would attend these events and debrief over our kitchen island about how refreshing it was to be in a new environment that wasn’t just tech.
We were all very involved in our computer science-related clubs, and the environment Notion fostered during 2023 was just what we needed to catch our breaths in between classes.
2023/2024
As I got settled for my last and final year at UIUC, Eesha, Ridhi and I were named the new leads for Notion. We became a registered student organization which meant we had the opportunity to be at Illinois’ Quad Day, the Sunday before school where students can walk around the quad to explore student organizations on campus. ✨
We had a booth where students got swag and signed up for notifications! This was the start of our Notion journey as leads! 💖
Throughout this time, Eesha, Ridhi, and I were experimenting around with following the ways in which we led our events while also figuring out how to work with a bigger team. The Notion Campus Leaders at uiuc was constructed of 7 girls at this point also including Madison Park, Nynika Badam, Anglea Pan, and Esha Iyengar.
One of the earliest memories I have of leading was with Ridhi and Madison on our welcome night event where we got to meet the new community of notion users at the Siebel Center for Design (SCD), a typical place where Notion events were held the previous year. We got to talk about events we were planning, Notion features, and was overall a social gathering for students to mingle.
Over the few events we held this fall, we took what we learned and concluded with a few things
Space and Location MATTERS!! Our vibe would be completely different if we held a workshop at SCD versus BrewLab Coffee, even if it was the same one
Where we promoted mattered: having signs posted around buildings outside of the engineering area of campus was important!
Our main monthly events shouldn’t be ultra-specific. We had a general community attend our events despite not being the target audience (for example, portfolio building workshop)
Collaborating with other student clubs was GOOD!
I say these things because as a lead, it was important that we had these fundamental facts about our community down.
brewlab coffee
Eesha was our official unofficial Notion Campus Leader president. The more events we made at BrewLab Coffee, the more she realized how much the coffee shop encouraged students and members to open up to others. The varied seating and open layout allowed campus leaders to also mingle with members as they walked in for an event, and it was the perfect layout to have members talking.
BrewLab Coffee was one of the biggest supporters in making this event possible. Historically, BrewLab and BakeLab bakery have had special deals with student organizations to rent out their space for a couple of hours and provide coffee drinks for attendees. Mira Sen, one of the BrewLab managers, helped us to curate this vibe that we were hoping to capture, and we have her and the BrewLab baristas and team to thank!
Eesha and Mira communicated heavily throughout the spring semester to coordinate our events. Mira was exceptionally amazing at creating the chalkboard for the unique custom drinks that attendees could order! 💖
The drinks alongside BakeLab pastries were the best additions to chat about books, organization, student clubs, and more.
our events and reflections
In total, the 2023-2024 Notion team hosted a grand total of 10 events and meetups throughout the year!
Quad Day Meetup
Notion Welcome Night
Notion Open Office
New Year, New Notion
Notion x Enactus Portfolio Workshop
Notion @ UX Day
Portfolio Building at BrewLab Coffee
CUBE x Notion UIUC Portfolio Workshop
Notion Open Mic Night
PHM x Notion UIUC Portfolio Workshop
Some notes and observations-
All of our collaborations with organizations were about portfolio workshop building and how to use Notion
We had some repeat events from the 2022-2023 year that were our personal favorites
We built a lot of portfolios lol (50% of our events)
So what would I say here? It’s hard to understand a group of people haha. Through building our online community on Discord as well, we had the chance to talk to students online and IRL, but it was still a challenge to make creative events that attracted a variety of students.
I believe that one of our best events, and an absolute banger to end off the year was our Notion Open Mic Night 🎤, where we let the community present a topic of their choice to our community at BrewLab Coffee.
We had non-typical Notion users build a page talking about how they use Notion for their startups, how to cook an egg 🍳, other productivity apps, and smiskis and sonny angels! This event worked because we used Notion as our tool to connect, and with friends of friends attending events, we were able to include just about anybody. These events worked the best at our campus.
The photos speak for themselves. Getting to lead Notion with friends and my roommate was one of the best experiences of college.
This year, we’re passing the torch off to Madison Park to lead. We know the community is in good hands, and I can’t wait to see how we grow. If you’re reading this as a prospective campus leader, trust your gut and collaborate with those around you. Your fellow campus leader alumnus believes in you! Also, I’m in NYC this summer, so if you’re around or want to schedule a coffee chat with me (virtually too!) I’m more than happy to get in touch. There’s only so much I can fit in a substack post hehe.
Thank you Bryan, Riya, Eesha, Ridhi (and your lovely baked goods), Notion UIUC team crew, and of course, Emma Yee Yick (EYY) for this lovely opportunity to lead alongside you all. Best of luck to all of the Notion CLs, past and future. 💖
Until next time,
ellie <3