Graffix · U-SU
We are the student web developers and designers behind the U–SU websites including calstatelausu.org, www.wingspanla.org, and slelections.org. We build, ship, and audit the site every Golden Eagle relies on and we train each other to leave it better than we found it.
Sites launched
Across the U-SU site and Graffix microsites
Vercel Real Experience Score
p75 across the site · last 30 days
WAVE accessibility score
Zero errors site-wide
Student devs trained
Since 2021
The Graffix Web Team maintains the U-SU sites. Here is where it takes you.
%
Placement rate
Alumni working in software or design within 6 months of graduation.
Months · time to hire
Average time between leaving the team and starting a full-time engineering role.
Alumni · Big Tech
At Microsoft, Snap, Riot, and other companies you've heard of. Plus another 23 at startups you haven't yet.
One full-time staff and one student working together to maintain and update the various U-SU websites.
Web Designer · Graffix · U-SU · 2022–present
John joined the U-SU as a student designer in 2020, grew the Web Team into what it is today, and still writes most of the onboarding docs himself. He runs hiring, code review, and the Wednesday standup.
The site is a Next.js 14 app on Vercel, written in TypeScript with styled-components. Auth is NextAuth + Azure AD. Content lives in Notion and Supabase. Video is Mux through next-video. Every page is keyboard-navigable, screen-reader-tested, and audited with WAVE before it ships.
We treat accessibility as a feature, not a checkbox. The team's standing rule: if a WAVE audit surfaces a single error, the PR doesn't merge.
Real Experience Score
Accessibility audit
You don't need a perfect portfolio. You need curiosity, the patience to learn in public, and a real interest in the students who will use what you build.
You poke at things. You read source. You ask "what happens if I press this?" and follow the answer all the way down.
The web changes weekly. The team's edge is staying interested.
You sweat the details kerning, focus states, the empty state nobody else thought about. Quality is a habit, not a sprint.
Students notice the broken things. Craft is how we earn their trust.
You give feedback kindly, ask for it often, and treat code review as the best part of the day instead of the worst.
Every page on the site is shipped by more than one person.
If something breaks at 4 PM on a Friday, you don't wait until Monday. You write the message, file the bug, ship the fix.
The people we serve don't care whose PR introduced the regression.
You design with screen readers, keyboards, and slow networks in front of you not as an afterthought once everything else is done.
The U-SU serves every Golden Eagle. The site has to do the same.
You'd rather get good than look good. You take notes in 1:1s, ship things you're not yet great at, and stay coachable.
The team is a training ground. The students who soar are the ones who keep climbing.
The Web Team is the first place I felt like an engineer instead of a student pretending to be one. I shipped to production end to end right away. By the time I graduated I was fully prepared for entering the workforce.
Isaiah Villalobos
Alumnus · Class of 2026
What our former team members did and where they landed. Every one of them remembers what it was like to be where you are, so reach out.
Web Designer · now Supervisor of this very team
Emily was a student dev before he ran the place. Quietly led the Scavenger Hunt, the compliment battle game, and the team's first 100-accessibility page.
ContributionsVirtual business cards · Compliment Battle game · KaraokeJS DJ tool
Frontend Developer · now at Snapchat
Built the original events module and was the team's first dedicated frontend specialist. Still answers Slack messages from current devs.
ContributionsEvents module v1 · Carousel · Mentor to 3 current team members
Full-Stack Engineer · now at Riot Games
Sarah owned the Notion + Supabase integrations and got the team unblocked from Vercel deploys more times than anyone can count.
ContributionsNotion API ingestion · Backoffice auth · Sitemap automation
Product Engineer · now at FYI
Maya rebuilt the design system from the ground up and gave the team the typography rules they still use today.
ContributionsDesign tokens · Typography component · Migrated to styled-system
Join the Web Team.
We hire one student every summer. No portfolio required. Bring curiosity, kindness, and the will to ship your first commit in public.
