Case study 01Entrepreneurship · Leadership · Operations

Project 315

Role: Founder & President
Organization: Syracuse University
Timeline: Fall 2025 — Present
Focus: Entrepreneurship · Leadership · Operations

Impact at a glance

200+
members
15
shoots and events
55
average attendees per event
$25,000
annual budget managed

Project overview

Project 315 is a student-led fashion and photography collective at Syracuse University. It gives students a place to work together on shoots, events and editorial productions.

In under a year it grew to 200+ members and 1,000+ Instagram followers, launched its own site at project315su.org, and became Syracuse’s largest fashion and photography media collective.

Visit project315su.org Instagram @project315su

The challenge

Plenty of Syracuse students were interested in fashion and photography, but there was no organized way for them to work together and turn that interest into real shoots, events and editorial work.

Building that from nothing was as much an operations problem as a creative one: recruiting members, producing shoots, managing money, and putting together a leadership team that could share the load.

Project 315 “90s vs Y2K” shoot — “90s vs Y2K” shoot

Goals and objectives

Objective 01
Give students a way to collaborate on creative projects, events and editorial productions.
Objective 02
Build a recognizable creative community at Syracuse University.
Objective 03
Set up a leadership structure that lets the organization run, and keep growing, without depending on its founder.
Objective 04
Build partnerships with other campus organizations.

My role and responsibilities

As founder and president, I set the direction and oversee how the organization runs.

Founded Project 315 and lead it as president.
Built a 10+ member executive board and gave each member ownership of a specific function.
Direct event operations, creative production and campus collaborations.
Set spending priorities and allocate a $25,000 annual budget across the organization’s needs.
Launched the organization’s website, project315su.org.

Project 315 × BySuli shoot — Project 315 × BySuli

Strategy and approach

Step 01
Structure before scale
An executive board where each member owns a function, so day-to-day operations don’t run through one person.
Step 02
Programming is the product
Shoots and events are the main thing members come for, so they’re planned and produced as a repeatable process.
Step 03
Partnerships for reach
Working with other campus organizations brings Project 315 to students beyond our own membership.
Step 04
Spending with intent
Spending priorities are set against the organization’s needs across a $25,000 annual budget.

Execution and deliverables

Shoots & events
15 creative shoots and events, averaging 55 attendees.
Editorial productions
Themed editorial shoots as a core part of what the organization produces.
Digital presence
Launched project315su.org and grew Instagram to 1,000+ followers.
Leadership team
Built a 10+ member executive board.

Results and impact

Organization

What the organization achieved

200+ members
15 shoots and events
Events averaging 55 attendees
1,000+ Instagram followers in under one year
Syracuse’s largest fashion and photography media collective

Individual

What I personally did

Founded the organization and grew it as president
Built the executive board and its structure
Developed partnerships with campus organizations
Directed event operations and creative production
Managed the $25,000 annual budget

Lessons learned

1.Clear ownership did more for us than adding people. When it isn’t obvious who owns something, every question ends up back with the president and everything slows down. With a 10+ person board, I make sure each function has one name next to it and that the person knows which calls they can make without checking with me first.
2.A budget is really a list of priorities. With $25,000 a year and more ideas than money, saying yes to one shoot means saying no to something else. Deciding what matters most before requests come in makes those calls faster, and much easier to explain to the board and to members.
3.Consistency builds a community more than any one big event does. Fifteen shoots and events averaging 55 attendees came from treating programming as a process we could repeat, not a fresh scramble every time. People come back when they can count on the next thing happening.
4.Partnerships reach people your own page can’t. Working with other campus organizations put us in front of students who would never have found us on Instagram. The partnerships that work are the ones where the other group gets something real out of it too, so that’s where I start the conversation.
5.Write things down early. When an organization grows this fast, it’s easy for how things work to live in a few people’s heads. If I started over, I’d document roles, processes and budget decisions from the first semester, so the next board isn’t rebuilding what we already figured out.