Start your open source journey with Community Exchange

With the launch of GitHub Global Campus, a whole new class of students have found a home as a CS developer from those starting out building confidence in open source to the shining stars completing a project and switching to maintainership. One common barrier that all student developers face in their open source journeys is finding a safe space with peers, to build an engaged community, and generate exposure for projects for others to contribute. GitHub Education now provides a safe place for students to learn from and lean on each other with the launch of the Community Exchange within GitHub Global Campus.

What can students do on Community Exchange?

Community Exchange offers students the ability to connect with peers to learn valuable skills on their journey to become an open source contributor, or become better at their software development craft. Community Exchange allows students to:

• Discover student created repositories. Students have the ability to search submitted repositories by repository name, topics, as well as stars, forks, and issue counts.

• Star repositories of interest. Whether you would like to revisit a repository later or show some appreciation for a well‐maintained project, you can apply stars to repositories from the Community Exchange gallery.

• Submit a repository in need of collaborators. Students can designate their repository as a “collaborate” repository so other students know that contributions are welcome at any level.

• Submit a repository to teach students new skills. Maybe you have a skillset or knowledge you would like to pass on to your peers. Students can designate their repository as a “learn” repository so other students can learn step-by-step how to code the project in the repository’s LEARN.md file.

• Manage repository submissions. Students have full control over which repositories they would like to showcase on Community Exchange. They can remove repositories from the Community Exchange gallery or quick link to their repository to edit.

Why should I use Community Exchange?

While there are many twists and turns along an open-source journey, you don’t have to travel alone. With the GitHub Global Campus student community, you are surrounded by others who are also learning and eager to collaborate.

With Community Exchange you can also:

• Get exposure for your repository. Global Campus is the home for nearly two million student developers. Your project could become the student community’s next favorite repository.
• Build your portfolio. Whether you are interested in applying for an internship or a dream job, an active GitHub profile can go a long way.
  Help other students learn. Helping the student community learn new skills and technologies is another great way to contribute to GitHub, and develop mastery.
• Grow your network. Collaborate and interact with other Global Campus students via student repositories. A strong network can yield many professional opportunities.
• Learn how to be a maintainer. Whether you have thought about trying maintainership or considered making a career out of becoming a GitHub sponsors maintainer, Community Exchange is the place to build your skills.

How do I get started with Community Exchange?

Community Exchange is available today on your Global Campus dashboard. If you’re a student and you haven’t joined Global Campus yet, apply for GitHub Global Campus benefits. Want to connect more with the Education community? Join the GitHub Education Discussions!