Flash Mob at Centre Square Mall, Kochi on Valentines day - Brahma 2014 -...

Firefox Student Ambassadors Programme

I happened to know about the Firefox Student Ambassadors (FSA) Programme through a share on Facebook. As I had heard a lot about the Open Source movement and other FOSS related activities and wanted to be involved in it, I found this as an excellent entry point.

The usual Student Ambassador programmes that I had seen involved an application to the programme and then a selection after the completion of certain criteria. But the FSA Programme seemed to be different. After filling up the form, I got a mailing confirming that I have become an FSA. That seemed a bit odd to me at that time and felt that there was nothing special about becoming an FSA!

A few days later, I happened to read a newsletter from Mozilla and then understood that there is more to this programme than what it appears to be superficially! I started visiting the various Mozilla websites and discovered the extents of Mozilla as a company and its products.

I also started doing the FSA activities that were part of this programme. This was when I started to understand why the FSA programme was indeed different. It lets us contribute with full respect to our contributions.

Soon I set up a Firefox Club at my college and became the Club Lead after attending the Firefox Club Lead training. By setting up a Firefox Club in our college/university, we can get involved in a local community which works for the betterment of Mozilla Firefox by doing good!

In another newsletter,  found that there was a meetup happening in Kerala. I signed up for it and got selected to attend it. This was something that totally changed my perspective about Mozilla. We had a very active Mozilla community here called Mozilla Kerala. At the meetup we discussed all sorts of ways that we could use for the betterment of the society.

Till now, my journey as an FSA was mind-blowing and I expect more of such an experience in the future too! I wish all other FSAs a great success and urge other students to join the FSA Programme.