BELL TOWER BUZZ: THE LATEST WORD ON STUDENT SUCCESS
HERE’S THE BUZZ ON:
WILLIAM WANG
William Wang, 21, is a third-year business administration major from Arcadia. (UCR/Stan Lim)
An app for that
While serving as treasurer of his fraternity, Wang grew frustrated with the cumbersome way membership dues were collected. So he created a mobile app called DashBill to simplify the process for clubs and nonprofits — and his fraternity will begin using the service this fall. Wang has been working with UCR’s Launchpad program to help get it off the ground, and he also secured $3,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps program to interview potential customers and define the product’s market fit. “I do see a potential market with other businesses, but I’m just trying to focus on one step at a time,” Wang said.
Money man
Wang serves as the vice president of finance for Associated Students of UCR, helping oversee a $1.2 million student organization budget. Due to the campus closure, Wang has had to help organizations figure out new ways to create programming. “This year, it’s a whole new thing,” he said. “We’re not going to lower anyone’s budget because we feel like that’s not fair. But we do give them more advice on how they could spend their money.”
Mr. Nice Guy?
Wang, now in his third year at UCR, has been elected president of UCR’s Kappa Sigma fraternity chapter for the 2020-21 academic year. Having grown up with his mom, sister, and grandma in the house, Wang said joining a fraternity — and then leading it — was a bit of a culture shock. “I realized I can’t just be this nice guy all the time,” he said. “I’ve got to have a toughness in me. In the fraternity, I was able to learn that.”
Vlog it
When he got to UCR, Wang started making YouTube videos about his life as a student. He also doles out tips for prospective college students, and his posts have racked up tens of thousands of views. “One student wrote to me saying she had anxiety before coming to college, and she said, ‘These videos literally erased my anxiety because now I feel like I have a better picture of what to expect.’” Wang continued: “I was really nervous before coming to college, so that warmed my heart knowing that I’m able to help someone in the same situation as me.” Wang shoots and edits all the videos himself, having learned how to use Final Cut Pro by watching tutorials — on YouTube, of course. But his passion is more than just a hobby. Wang sees a correlation between DashBill and his presence on YouTube. “Both are tied to college,” he said. “I want to have a really broad network in the education world.”
