Students, especially those in the field of computer science aspire to be a developer working on world-class projects even before they graduate. Sometimes they think they are limited to using localhost in building tons of projects that never get to see the light of the day nor make it to deployment. This frustration has led many students in giving up on their dreams and leaving their dream projects dead. I remember having this problem during my first year in school, I wanted to build a personal portfolio and I believed that having a personal portfolio would help me and my brand. Being a student with limited income and resources, I almost gave up in the process until I discovered GitHub education.
GitHub Education is a program established by GitHub for students, teachers, and schools. In this article, I will focus more on the benefits to the students. The benefits of GitHub education to students are limitless that sometimes I ask myself what is the motive behind GitHub giving out all of these for free. The GitHub education has offers for students such as:
- GitHub Student Developer Pack (This is my favorite)
- GitHub Student Gallery (Platform where students showcase the projects they built with GitHub Student developer pack)
- GitHub Campus Experts (A program for students who are building a student community in their schools. GitHub supports you in a lot of ways)
- GitHub Global Campus(Like the name illustrates, a global campus for students to learn and connect)
- GitHub Learning Lab (Free platform to grow your skill by completing fun and realistic projects)
I would have loved to explain all the above projects by GitHub, but I will just focus on the GitHub Student Developer Pack and how you can secure it. Maybe I will do part 2 of this write-up that will include other programs and a more in-depth overview in the future.
GitHub student developer pack is a set of tools that enables you to build software and deploy them professionally. The awesome part of it is that it is completely FREE.
According to GitHub Learn to ship software like a pro. There’s no substitute for hands-on experience. But for most students, real-world tools can be cost-prohibitive. That’s why we created the GitHub Student Developer Pack with some of our partners and friends.
There are over 100 benefits from various companies that are packed together in the GitHub students developers pack. Now I will teach you how to access the student's developer pack. Before then, you should know that GitHub student’s developer pack is strictly for students. Therefore before you can access it you would prove your student identity through your school registered email domain example (vincent@myschool.edu) or through an identification process for people whose school doesn't offer school email. The steps below are for students with school emails. If you do not have a school-dedicated email, you can still access the GitHub student developer pack by contacting GitHub Support @ support.github.com/request.
- Step 1: Visit the student developer Pack main page (education.github.com/pack)
- Step 2: Sign Up for the student developer pack
- Step 3: Select Get Student Benefit
- Step 4: Sign-in or SignUp for a GitHub account.GitHub account is free, so if you have not signed up yet feel free to signup as it is a prerequisite before you can access the Student Developer Pack.
- Step 5: Add your school email. This process usually needs some authentication, because a code will be sent to your school email for verification.
- Step 6: Write the name of your school
- Step 7: Answer how you plan to use GitHub.
- Step 8: On some occasions, more proof might be required. So you might need to upload either of school identity card or any other form of proof of study validity.
- Final step: Submit the application.
Submitted applications are sometimes reviewed within the hour or at most within a day. This might take slightly longer on very few occasions depending on the volume of applications received.
I encourage students to take advantage of the GitHub education and use most of the tools provided therein.
Thank you for reading.
Oh!, and before I forget, feel free to buy me a coffee ☕ @ buymeacoffee.com/vickjoe just make sure there is no excess sugar, please.