Channel Leadership:

Student Leaders can "own" a Slack channel, where their role is to make sure that students in that channel are getting answers to their questions. This could be Nanodegree-specific, such as moderating their program's #peer-help channel, or it can be across all Nanodegree programs, such as #motivation or #careers.

While channel leaders are not expected to know the answer to every single question, we do ask that folks sign up to lead an area that they feel excited and confident in! For example, you don't have to be a career expert to lead the #careers channel, but you should have some job searching/application experience and feel comfortable providing career guidance to a range of people at varying professional levels.

There are generally multiple leaders per channel, so not all of the responsibility falls onto one individual.

Since we'll be welcoming new students into Slack every week, Student Leader applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and we look to the existing channel leaders to help new Student Leaders get their footing!

Organizing Events:

Student Leaders have organized all sorts of events in the past, from leading technical help sessions or webinars during Study Jams, to hosting in-person or virtual meetups, to organizing community hackathons. The choice is yours!

Events can be local or virtual; if you live in an area where there are many other students nearby, then it can be great to organize in-person events or study sessions, but also consider if a larger audience could benefit from what you're planning, and if hosting it online could work.

Events can be Nanodegree-specific or open to students from all Nanodegree programs. While we recommend that events don't distract students from their coursework, it's great to see students supplementing course content through organizing tech talks relating to their Nanodegree field, or by hosting a hiring event at their company!

Planning Initiatives:

While Udacity provides students with the core resources they need to work through the course content, submit projects, and successfully graduate from their Nanodegree programs, we know that there are many other resources that can be helpful to students, and this is a great opportunity for Student Leaders to step in!

In the past, Student Leaders have created databases to store resources, developed study buddy programs, and helped organize study groups. Like with channel leadership or planning events, initiatives can be specific to your Nanodegree program or be open to students across all programs.

We recommend that students work together on any initiatives they wish to plan for their community; it can be a lot of work to organize others, and as with everything, we want the Student Leader experience to enhance your learning in your Nanodegree program, not conflict with your study schedule or make it difficult for you to complete your coursework! Planning an initiative as part of a team is a great way to highlight your teamwork and collaboration skills, so don't do it alone if you don't need to!