Introducing the new Campus Advisors program

GitHub Campus Advisors are teachers who are enthusiastic about teaching with Git and GitHub. Whether or not they come from a technical background, they’re deeply passionate about technology and sharing what they know with others.

Day to day, Campus Advisors introduce version control to students in all fields, both technical and otherwise. That’s because understanding version control is an essential skill, whether you’re a STEM professional yourself or interacting with one. GitHub Campus Advisors also encourage colleagues—outside of the classroom and even at educator conferences, like SIGCSE and CSTA—to teach with Git and GitHub, ensuring that students everywhere have access to these essential skill sets. Campus Advisors receive special invitations to educational conferences and meetups around the world, in addition to other benefits.

A cornerstone of the program when it launched almost three years ago was the Campus Advisor training. Our self-paced training helped teachers learn how to use Git and GitHub in their schools and introduced them to GitHub Classroom, which included 272 teachers from 50 countries who went on to become Campus Advisors. The program is now evolving, and we’re relaunching with a new application process and more clear cut guidelines and responsibilities. The pre-application training will no longer be required for Campus Advisors, though we’ll still continue to train and support our teachers in any way we can. Though much is changing, our goal is the same: to build a community of teachers who love sharing their knowledge inside and outside of school and who feel supported while doing it.

If you’re interested in becoming a Campus Advisor, here is what’s new!

We’re revising our application process 

To help our program live up to its promises, we’re changing the application process to make it more streamlined and help us identify the best teachers for the job. While the current process requires each applicant to do a training before their official interview, we’re instead looking for teachers who already love and use GitHub and are ready to start teaching (and supporting other teachers) right away. In the new application, you will get to tell us how you’re supporting your colleagues and how we can help.

We’re updating the Campus Advisor experience 

We know being a Campus Advisor is a lot of work, and with the current uncertain environment with remote and remote-hybrid instruction, it’s even more challenging. That’s why we’re dedicated to providing our advisors with additional support going forward. We’ll start by creating more touchpoints for advisors to connect with one another. We also are creating levels of involvement, so advisors can choose whether they want to simply teach and ensure that their school has access to GitHub Education benefits or go further and present at events and conferences.

What we’re looking for in a Campus Advisor

If you’re interested in becoming a Campus Advisor, the requirements are below. Please note that you cannot become a Campus Advisor if there is already one in your same department on your campus. The requirements are as follows:

• You’re comfortable using Git and GitHub and have a GitHub account for at least six months
• You’re a classroom teacher who teaches students (and loves it)
• You’ve been using GitHub with your students in the classroom for at least one semester
• You’re verified for GitHub Education benefits for teachers

We’ll also be looking to gauge interest in sharing knowledge. Do you have experience speaking publicly or creating videos or blogs? Do you assist other teachers with using version control in their classes? Do you enjoy helping students organize technology events? We want to understand your motivation to learn more about technology and best practices. Better yet, we want to see a passion for learning and sharing what you know.

If you want to support and be part of this community of teachers, apply today!

The new application is now live and can be found in the GitHub Teacher Toolbox. Once you apply, the process should be completed as quickly as one month, from the time of applying to scheduling an interview to receiving a decision. Application reviews will resume mid January.

We look forward to seeing your application!

Apply now

Written by

Arelia Jones

@arelia