It’s that time of the year again, when we select students from universities across Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) to be part the Google Student Ambassador program. The second year of the program saw tremendous growth as it expanded from 6 to 12 countries, and grew from 28 to 97 universities with 160 Ambassadors within 1 year. The program also held its first training summit in Nairobi.

Google Student Ambassadors (GSAs) are student leaders on campus whose mission is to use technology to make a difference, not only in their universities, but also in their communities more widely. Ambassadors have helped improve their universities’ online presence by mapping over 60 African university campuses including the University of Ghana, and Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University.

GSAs are improving collaboration and communication among students and faculty by conducting trainings on tools such as Google Apps for Education, Google+ for Education and YouTube for School. They have also helped students and faculty to take advantage of Google initiatives for academia like the Google Online Marketing Challenge, Google Summer of Code and Google scholarships.

With the skills picked up during their tenure, a number of GSAs have even gone on to start their own businesses. An example is Webcoupers [http://www.webcoupers.com/about/team/], a Nigerian digital marketing company that was started by Oluseyi Oladipo (GSA) and Adepoju Abiodun (GSA Alumni).

If you’re inspired by these examples, we invite you to enter for the 2013 program. Eligible students from all backgrounds should complete the application form [https://services.google.com/fb/forms/ssagsa2013/] before April 11, 2013. For more information on the Google Student Ambassador Program and other student opportunities in Sub Saharan Africa, visit our University Programs website[http://www.google.com/africa/universityprograms/].