How to Create Your SIMCODES Student Profile

How to Create Your SIMCODES Student Profile

This page will walk you through your first GitHub experience, creating your profile. So get ready to say “Hello World!” to the SIMCODES community!!!

N.b., to keep things simple this tutorial will show you how to create new files directly with the GitHub website. If you are familiar with git and GitHub already feel free to use whatever workflow you are comfortable with to: clone the repository, make the changes on a branch, and open a pull request.

How to create your SIMCODES Student Profile (With Picture and Bio)

Welcome to SIMCODES! This guide will help you create your personal student profile that will be listed on the Students Page. Your profile will include:

  • ✅ Your name and a short introduction
  • ✅ A clear profile photo
  • ✅ A dedicated profile page linked from the main list

Step 0: Prerequisites

Before undertaking this tutorial ensure:

  • You have signed up for GitHub.
  • The SIMCODES-ISU administrators have added you to the SIMCODES-ISU organization.
  • You have accepted the invite to the SIMCODES-ISU organization.

Step 1: Prepare Your Profile Pictures

We minimally will need two pictures for your profile. The first is called your “thumbnail”. To create it:

  1. Save a photo of yourself with a square aspect ratio.
  2. Resize it to around 300x300px (optional).
  3. Name the file like <first>_<last>_thumbnail.png, e.g., ryan_richard_thumbnail.png (if your name is Ryan Richard).
    • Throughout this tutorial quantities in angle brackets, i.e., <> denote placeholders that you will need to replace with the appropriate value. For example <first> will need to be replaced by your lowercase first name.
    • GitHub is case sensitive, so we strongly suggest using all lowercase for file names to avoid having to debug capitalization issues.
    • Your file can also be a JPEG (in which case the extension would be *.jpeg and not .png).

The next image is called your “banner” image. It will be displayed at the top of your profile.

Step 2: Create Your Profile File.

Note that your progress on this step and the next will NOT be saved until you have finished Step 3. So make sure you set aside at least 15 minutes to complete these two steps!!!

  1. Navigate to the GitHub repository for the SIMCODES Website
    • It should looks something like: SIMCODES Website
  2. Click on the docs directory.
    • The page should now look like: SIMCODES Website
  3. Navigate to the directory for your cohort, e.g., if you are part of the 2026 cohort click on _students-2026.
    • If you are the first student to add a profile, the directory will not exist yet. In this case, we’ll create it as part of the next step.
  4. Click Add File. In the drop down box select “create new file”
    • Add File dialog
  5. If your year’s directory was not present in step 4, then in the “Name your file” box type_students-<XXXX>/ (replacing <XXXX> with the four-digit year).
    • Once you type the / character GitHub should create a directory and give you a new “Name your file” box.
    • Make directory
    • Because typing the ‘/’ creates a new directory we were unable to capture typing the ‘/’ in the above picture.
  6. Name your file <first>_<last>.md where <first> is your first name and <last> is your last name, e.g., if your name is Ryan Richard your file should be called ryan_richard.md.
    • Name file
  7. Copy/paste the following text into the editor:
---
title: "<First> <Last>"
layout: page
author: "<First>"
image:
  thumbnail: /_students-<XXXX>/images/<first>_<last>_thumbnail.png
  path: /_students-<XXXX>/images/<first>_<last>_header.png
---

# About Me

Hi! I'm <First>, currently a <academic standing> at <university> majoring in
<major>. I’m passionate about <interests>.

## 📚 Project Name or Internship Work

**Description**: 
**Tech Stack**: 
**Link**: 


## 📈 Goals for This Internship

- [ ] <goal 1>
- [ ] <goal 2>

## 🔗 Links

- GitHub: [@<github_username>](https://github.com/<github_username>)
- <other_links>
  1. Go through the text and replace:
    • <first> with your lowercase first name,
    • <last> with your lowercase first name,
    • <First> with your capitalized first name,
    • <Last> with your capitalized last name,
    • <academic standing> with freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior,
    • <University> the name of the college or university you attend,
    • <major> what you are majoring in (feel free to also specify minors),
    • <interests> what are some of your academic and personal interests,
    • <github_username> with your GitHub username
    • <other_links> if you would like to display links to other professional accounts/websites you own add more bullet points to the list (otherwise just delete the <other_links>)
    • <goal 1> with your first goal for the internship, e.g., learn more about AI/ML
    • <goal 2> another goal for the internship (feel free to add more goals)
    • Ignore the “Project Name or Internship Work” section for now. We’ll update this once you’ve been assigned a project.
  2. When you’re done it should look something like:
    • profile example

Step 3: Draft a Pull Request

  1. Click “Commit changes…”
    • Make sure “Create a new branch for this commit and start a pull request” is selected.
    • PR example
  2. Fill out the PR template. Specifically:
    • Delete the text “Please list issues…as appropriate” and replace it with the word “No” (i.e., your profile is not being added in response to a tracked issue).
    • Delete “Describe what…accomplish” and replace it with what the PR will do when it is complete, e.g., “This PR adds my profile to the XXX cohort section”
    • Delete “For draft pull requests…them.” and add: ```
      • Upload thumbnail image
      • Upload banner image
    • Make sure the green button at the bottom says “Draft pull request” and not “Create pull request”. If not, click the arrow next to “Create pull request” and select “Create draft pull request.”
    • Should look something like: PR example
  3. Draft the PR by clicking on the green button.
    • It should look something like: PR example

Step 4: Upload Images

At the end of Step 3 you were on the page for your pull request. If you navigated away from that page you can get back by going to the SIMCODES-ISU.github.io repo clicking on “Pull requests” at the top, and then selecting your pull request from the list.

Quick git lesson. On your pull request page, right under the title will be two blue boxes. These are “branch” names. For now think of these as different versions of the website. “main” is the version of the website used to actually build the website, i.e., when you navigate to https://simcodes-isu.github.io you see the version built from “main.” The other branch is a copy of “main,” but with your changes added to it. Unless you changed it in Step 3, the name of your branch should be something like ryanmrichard-patch-1 (but with your username).

  1. On your pull request page, click on your branch’s name.
    • This will take you to what looks like the main page of the SIMCODES-ISU.github.io repo, but with one critical difference: the file structure is that of your pull request. This is the file structure of your branch.
    • You can tell you are on your pull request because the box in the top-left will display the contents of the blue box you clicked on.
    • Branch view
  2. Navigate back to the your cohort’s directory.
    • Click on docs then _students-XXXX.
  3. If your _students-XXXX directory has an images subdirectory click on it. If images is not present yet, add it now.
    • To add an images directory click “Add file”, then “Add new file”. In the name field type images/README.md.
      • You can leave the file blank, we’re going to be deleting it later.
      • When you type the / character the directory should be added.
    • Click “Commit changes…”.
    • Make sure “Commit directly to your branch” is selected (do NOT create a new pull request).
    • Click “Commit changes”.
    • Now navigate back to your branch’s view of docs/_students-XXXX/images.
  4. Click “Add file” then “Upload files”.
    • It should look like: Upload files
  5. Either drag your images onto the displayed box or click on “choose your files”.
    • Upload both your thumbnail and banner image.
    • Once both are selected it should look like: Upload files
  6. Make sure “Commit directly to your branch” is selected and then click “Commit changes”.
    • You should be taken back to the view of your branch you saw at the end of Step 4, item number 1.
    • If your cohort already had an images directory move on to Step 5.
  7. If your cohort did not have an images directory previously, navigate back to docs/_students-XXXX/images and delete README.md.

    • To delete README.md click on it, then click the the button with three dots on the top. three dots

    • From the drop-down menu select “Delete file”.
    • Click “Commit changes…”
    • Ensuring “Commit directly to your branch” is selected click “Commit changes”

Step 5: Mark Pull Request as Ready

  1. From the landing page for the SIMCODES-ISU.github.io repo, i.e., here click on “Pull requests” in the top bar.
  2. Select your pull request from the list.
    • The resulting page is the “Conversation” view of the pull request and looks like: pr conversation
  3. (Optional) click on “Files changed” and ensure:
    • Your profile is being added to docs/_students-XXXX/<first>_<last>.md.
    • Your thumbnail is being added to docs/_students-XXXX/images/<first>_<last>_thumbnail.png (your image may have a different extension)
    • Your banner is being added to docs/_students-XXXX/images/<first>_<last>_banner.png (your image may have a different extension).
  4. Back on the Conversation view of your pull request (if you left it) click the boxes next to your TODOs since you did them.
    • todos done
  5. At the bottom of your pull request select “Ready for review”.
    • ready for review
  6. (Optional) if one of the SIMCODES administrators does not respond to your pull request in a day or two add a comment saying something like “reminder for review”.

Step 6. Next Steps

  1. If you followed this tutorial exactly, then the SIMCODES administrators should approve your pull request and your profile will be added to the website.
  2. If there’s something wrong with your profile the administrators will either fix it for you (if it’s a small change) or request that you fix it.
    • For uploading new phots follow the steps in Step 4. If you need to change the text of your profile navigate to <first>_<last>.md and edit the file.