Campus Experts Applications open at 12:00 AM, PT, August 1, 2024
GitHub Campus Experts are student leaders that strive to build diverse and inclusive student communities.These communities are centered around bridging the gap between classrooms and industry by emphasizing the skills necessary for success in software development careers. GitHub Campus Experts can be found across the globe leading in-person and online conferences, meetups, hackathons, and maintaining open-source projects. These students come from a wide range of backgrounds, but all have one thing in common: they are deeply passionate about technology and the people in it.
And we’re looking for a few more.
In the 8 years since its inception, the program has supported more than 470 students in building technical communities around the world. As local leaders, Campus Experts know the challenges students face at their school. They work closely with their peers to close the gap between industry and academia by creating new opportunities for students to learn industry-valued skills. What’s more, being part of the program provides students with valuable resources and training to ensure that they have everything they need to face their challenges, achieve their goals, and better serve their community.
This is why every application cycle we receive thousands upon thousands of applications to the program. We keep the number of experts low in order to be able to better serve their needs as they serve the needs of their communities. Therefore, it necessitates that we are careful about how many are admitted to the program each year. Of the 3500 plus applications we received in February of 2024, only 27 were selected to begin training as Campus Experts. We will be admitting a similar amount in August.
A note about what we are not: GitHub Campus Experts are not brand ambassadors. You need not be a Git expert or even a computer science major. Campus Experts are passionate about one thing: expanding the industry specific knowledge of their peers by being the conduit through which they learn new technologies and best practices.
What makes a great Campus Expert?
A great Campus Expert means you’re a university student who loves tech events: hackathons, webinars, live coding sessions, workshops, and more. You love to share any knowledge you have with others and love teaching and helping others achieve their goals. Your favorite way to work is on a team, building something bigger than any one person can do on their own, a student who is community focused and driven to expand the opportunities available to everyone on their campus. You are an advocate for your peers and colleagues and seek to bring multiple perspectives and backgrounds into tech by encouraging diversity and inclusion both in and out of your community.
Criteria
To apply, you must:
- Have the GitHub Student Developer Pack.
- Be 18 years of age or older.
- Be enrolled in a formal higher education institution.
- Have at least one full year left before graduating.
- Have had a GitHub account for at least six months.
What We Want to Learn About You
The first thing we want to do is get to know our applicants better, the questions we ask seek to learn more about your:
- Motivation. What makes you tick? What drives you? Why do you do what you do?
- Interest. Why do you want to be part of the program? What is your goal in applying?
- Growth and potential. What kind of skills do you want to learn, and how will they help you grow personally and professionally?
- Contribution. What kind of an impact have you made/do you want to make on your campus for your peers and community?
How the Application Process Works
The application process consists of two sections: an application form and then a video resume. You’ll have a full month to submit the form(Applications close at 11:59:00 pm Pacific Time on August 31, 2024). Once applications to the program close, the GitHub Education team will review all the applications that came in. This review period can take as long as a month. If the team would like to move forward with you, we’ll reach out with instructions about how to submit your video resume. You will then have two weeks to submit the video portion of the application. After we review the videos, which can take up to 3 weeks, we will notify all video applicants of their status in the program: either acceptance or declination.
Form Application
In the form, we’re looking for students to tell us about the challenges their student community faces, what opportunities they want to build for their peers, as well as the potential they see for growth. These questions are designed to be answered completely and thoroughly. Make sure you have written just enough to convey your point to the reader. Not too short, not too long; answer enough to fully explain without over-explaining.
In February 2024, many applications we saw were clearly written by generative AI. We want to make sure that we make it abundantly clear that we want to learn about YOU and your voice in these applications, not an LLM’s voice. This means that Chat GPT and other generative AI should not be answering these questions for you.** We do not ever move through with those applications that used AI to create their answer. Yes, it’s OFTEN very obvious.**
We know many of you want to have the best possible application, and that you might be worried about grammar mistakes and thus use AI to help you overcome that. There are many tools that can help you with spelling, tone, and other grammar considerations without totally writing an answer for you. Asking AI to check your grammar on a response you wrote yourself is very different from giving generative AI the application questions and having the AI give an answer (as we saw happen countless times in February’s applications). The answers AI gives are generic and you are a unique individual! So use your own voice and be sure to fill out these questions with your answers, not an AI model’s answers.
Video Application
In the video resume, we’re hoping to get to know you better as a person, including your motivations and interests. Questions to answer will be sent along to all applicants who make it to the second round. It doesn’t have to be high production value - a video using your webcam and computer microphone is more than enough! However, we recommend putting some effort into the content of the video and how you answer the question. We understand this process might not be accessible for all students. If you require an alternative method to make your submission, you can reach out to the GitHub Education team, and we’ll arrange some help.
After your video has been submitted, we’ll take up to 3 weeks to review them. If the program is the right fit for you, you’ll be accepted and receive an invitation to go through the GitHub Campus Experts Training and on the road to becoming an official Campus Expert!
Changes to Applications Moving Forward
In 2025, we will be moving to once a year applications. We will announce the exact month of the 2025 applications at a later date, but the process itself as outlined above will remain the same. Moving to once a year gives us more time to carefully select from the pool of applicants while still giving us enough time to onboard them before the next batch of experts arrives. We still aim to bring in the same number of Campus Experts each year, we’ll just do it in a larger single cohort, rather than in two separate batches. Join GitHub Education and subscribe to our education newsletter to stay up to date with all the latest GitHub Education news.
What’s Next?
Are you ready to apply? Make sure you’re ready by getting the GitHub Student Developer Pack and subscribing for program updates. We look forward to hearing from you when applications open at midnight Pacific Time, August 1, 2024. Apply Here
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