Applications for MENA Google Student Ambassadors 2012/13 Now Open

A lot of you have been asking us how you can become a Google Student Ambassador, here's your answer!

Fill out the Application now!

To apply;

1. Fill out the MENA GSA 2012 Application before June 30!
2. Write an essay about one of these two topics (you can choose either regardless of your major):
1. Engineering students: “Is there a way for the social web to be more than just social?”
2. Non-engineering students: “Creative FOPs (forms of payment) and social support” 
3. Write a motivation letter on "why you want to be an Ambassador, what you can change in your Country through learning new technical skills and how using Google tools could help your university" 
4. Provide a short statement from Professor or Head of Department confirming name, level and area of study.

Requirements:

• Currently enrolled in a college or university in the Middle East or North Africa, preferably in the 2nd or 3rd year
• Pursuing a BA/BS or MS degree
• Passionate about technology
• Able to plan events and manage a budget
• Actively involved in student life on campus
• Any student from: Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan, Palestine & UAE can apply.

You will have to:

• Attend a one-week intensive summer training to help familiarize you with Google products, features, programs and other opportunities for students. 
• Work closely with local Google teams
• Host and organize events to bring awareness about Google's products and brand
• Spread the word about competitions, training opportunities, scholarships and other events
• Attend Google events as a Google representative
• Help Google to better understand your campus' culture
• Build relationships on campus with faculty and student groups
• Test products and features
• Promote product use and new product launches to students
• Be a source of knowledge for your university about Google products
• Spread Google goodwill to your fellow students

If you succeed, you will:

• Receive regular updates about exciting new Google products / features, programs and announcements
• Enhance your professional development, leadership, technical and communication skills
• Be eligible to participate in special Google events, product training and be considered for local internships
• Be able to exchange best practices with Ambassadors from other schools and disciplines from around the region.

Timeline is as follows:

• Registration opens: Sunday. April 15, 2012 
• Registration closes: Tuesday, May 15, 2012  Friday, June 15 2012 Saturday, June 30 2012 (yes, the deadline has been extended! AGAIN!!)
• Acceptance noyification: Early July
• Training: August 2012 (after Ramadan)

More details here.

What's a 'Google Student Ambassador'?

I've been asked this question many times "What's a 'Google Student Ambassador'?" - more than I can even count! I've been asked in person, via chat, online post, social networks, ...

Some amazing fellow ambassadors
from the training

And I believe that many of my amazing fellow ambassadors (photo to the right) were asked as well.
And -as expected- I answered each one of them. At first I was proud for being an official google representative, so I gave them the link of the google page, but most of them came with the typical reply: "So what do you do exactly?"
So this post is the answer, hopefully all those revisions would make it brief, informative and sufficient :)

My role consists of 2 parts:

1. Bringing Google to my university (AlexU).
2. Taking my university to Google.

1. Bringing Google to my university:

In case you don't know, Google is FUN!! And having the opportunity to bring google closer to my colleagues is simply wonderful.

In addition to that; google always takes side with the user, and they're the kind of company that follows their public stated philosophy.
Google has amazing applications and tools that they choose to offer freely to the users (us). And I was telling my colleagues about these products like google docs, youtube, gmail,... long before I became an ambassador, having the title only made it official =)

They make the life of a student SO MUCH EASIER! I can't tell how people before graduated without them.

2. Taking my university to Google
Google also offers lots of grants, scholarships, internships, ... And many students -and faculty- miss out on lots of opportunities just because they didn't know. So the second part of my role is to stay in contact with google's latest news and offers and notify my colleagues about them.

In a nutshell: this way I work as a link between Google and AlexU.

How do I do that?
Simply anyway I can -in a good way though- if I have and idea: I just tell google, they approve it, then they provide me with what I need.

If I'm thinking of .. let's say a competition, I think it through, I check all my requirements, budget, etc and I tell google, wait for the approval, then I start making it happen :)

This applies to anything you have in mind, info booth, workshop, code lab, ...
In a nutshell be creative, enthusiastic, and realistic; and send your bill to google =D.

The official google page shows exactly what are my responsibilities and privileges, but being an ambassador offers much much more!! Hopefully I'll post later about the perks of being a google student ambassador.

At the end if you have more questions just post them in the comments and I'll try to answer them.

And if I excited you about being an ambassador, and you want to know once the application is open next year, follow the google arabia blog, and the google students blog.
Or add me to your circles, or follow me on twitter, I'll be posting/tweeting about google updates.

-- 

John Matta

Google Student Ambassador
Alexandria University
Egypt