My GitHub Campus Expert Journey and how you can become one
Tags: githubcampusexpert, community, github
Published: 2019-11-01 13:35:31

I've been asked a lot about my GitHub Campus Expert journey and how can one become a GitHub Campus Expert. This is an attempt to answer those questions and express my gratitude to this amazing program.

While browsing through the <a href="https://education.github.com/">GitHub Education</a> website, one day I landed on the <a href="https://githubcampus.expert/">GitHub Campus Expert</a> webpage. I skimmed through the webpage and understood that this program will help me start a community on my campus, and so I hit the *Become a Campus Expert* button.

Before applying to the program you need to verify that you're a student and for that you need to either upload your institute ID or sign-up with your institute email id. Once you've been verified you can proceed to the next step which is filling up the initial application.  I followed the same procedure and I got selected for the next phase.
Did I mention that once you're verified as a Student you get $100000 worth of amazing developer tools and services to learn and improve your skills! Check it out <a href="https://education.github.com/pack">here</a>.

The second phase of the program is the training, where you work with amazingly designed modules which helps you to be a better community leader. To be honest, it were these modules that helped me gain a clear vision of what a community is, how to plan and host events and what skills I need to work on to be an effective leader. If you complete the modules with the same enthusiasm you started it with, you're going to be a great leader.

Once you've completed the modules, the next step is to wait and be patient. Your submissions undergoes a detailed review. Unlike any other program, the review team very thoroughly reads and reviews each and every submission and provide you feedback to improve it. My application was also reviewed and a very helpful feedback was provided. I worked on my feedback, it again went for a review, the submissions were accepted and vola! I was just one step away to become a GitHub Campus Expert.

It was October 2, 2018, the day I officially became a GitHub Campus Expert. It was that day when a call with the amazing Joe Nash (he was Program Manager at that time) was scheduled. The call was great, after the chat, he showed me the on-boarding process. I created my GitHub Campus Expert profile, got added to Slack, and I was a GitHub Campus Expert! 🥳

I already had an event planned which I proudly hosted as a GitHub Campus Expert. I also got to organize a Hacktoberfest event with Daniel Phiri (GitHub Campus Expert Alumni). Daniel helped me a lot during the process and was a constant support. 

As a GitHub Campus Expert, I got a lot of opportunities to help and inspire people, talk about open source and meet some great folks. I did my first booth crawl {% medium https://medium.com/@harshil1712/booth-crawl-at-makerfest-vadodara-2019-61bbcf1e20c1 %} organized the first Flutter Bootcamp {% medium https://medium.com/@harshil1712/the-flutter-bootcamp-story-2089ccc261f6 %} gave my first DevFest talk {% medium https://medium.com/@harshil1712/web-accessibility-at-devfest-ranchi-3e254155ebfa %} and also my first international talk! {% medium https://medium.com/@harshil1712/fossasia-summit-2019-my-first-international-talk-a2106aa450c4 %} I organized more than 40+ events/meetups/workshops in just 6 months impacting more than 200 people!

The program has been really helpful and inspiring. Whenever and wherever I faced an issue, I knew there were 100+ other GitHub Campus Experts there to help me out. The program makes you feel like a huge family you have, that is spread out to different parts of the world.

I would like to thank Joe, Lieke and all the GitHub Campus Experts to be a constant inspiration and support! You folks are amazing! :sparkling_heart:   

*About the program*
The GitHub Campus Expert program is an amazing opportunity to help your local community. The program focuses on your local community and helps you to build and grow your local community. This is not an ambassador program unlike others, the program actually focuses on supporting you to help you grow your community.
By becoming a GitHub Campus Expert you don't represent GitHub nor you can be called as a GitHub Employee.

I hope I was able to answer a few questions students have about the program. Below are the answers to the few that I always come across about the program.

- What should I write in my application?
  Honestly I don't have an answer to this. The best advice I could give is be honest with your application, you know your community better.

- I am not sure what I should write in my application, may you please give me some points?
  I am afraid if you don't know why you want to be a GitHub Campus Expert, you're not ready to be one. Take some more time and work on it.

- What prerequisites/qualities to become a GitHub Campus Expert?
  There are no such prerequisites/qualities. Personally, I believe you should be motivated enough to help people and grow your community.

- My application got rejected. Can I reapply?
  Yes you definitely can!

-  My application got rejected. When can I reapply?
   If your application got rejected you can reapply in the next semester i.e after 6 months. But please don't let this stop you to contribute towards the community. Use this time to build and grow your community, you'll get a great experience before joining the program and will know the roles and responsibilities of a community lead.

- My application got rejected, what should I do to improve myself, so that I get selected the next time?
  If your application got rejected don't worry, you're not the reason. Sometimes there are so many applications that it becomes really difficult to shortlist many of you. There might also be a huge probability that someone from your institute is already in the training.  

- I am in the training phase and working on the modules. Could you please share your submissions?
  I am sorry but I won't. The modules are designed to help you become a better community leader and improve your skills. I don't want to take away this learning opportunity from you.

If you still have any more questions, please feel free to ask them.