Developing a Pairing System for Students Participating in Community-Based Projects

Students who participate in community-based projects are challenged by the broad breadth of activities and unique needs of partners, leading to a potential mismatch of necessary skills/interests, interpersonal conflict, and an underwhelming experience by both parties. Pre-determining and matching complementary student and project characteristics is one solution to improve the quality, value, and overall experience. PHRM 323 is an elective course that pairs students with partners to support community-based projects. Previously, students were randomly assigned to their community project. This project created a pairing system to match students to projects based on their interests, skills, and values.