January was an awesome month surrounded around the topic of Privacy. We had lots of activities and conversations surrounding the topic. Thank you Ambassadors for being part of the experience. But don’t worry, we’re only just getting started this year! There are lots of new initiatives being planned for this program and for you. Stick around, it’s going to get even awesomer.

Featured Activities This Month

• Firefox OS AppDay @ GCEK
• More Than a Browser @ MITAOE
• MozTour @ AIE Gapan
• Maker Party @ DAVIET
• Firefox OS Workshop @ Aptech DHA
• Mozillians of Law Inauguration @ JSSLC

Have you tried Hello?

Hello is the easiest way to connect for free over video, with anyone.

Firefox Student Ambassador is hosting a Say Hello Challenge this month…but shhhh, we aren’t saying what it is yet until later this week! For now, head over here to figure out how to use Hello. Invite a friend to try out the feature with you. Hints for the challenge:

• You’ll need to know how Hello works.
• Start thinking of ways to demo Hello on your campus.

Learn about QA this February Office Hour!

The QA Team created One and Done as a platform to give users a variety of ways to contribute to Mozilla through manual testing, automation, bug verification, mobile testing and more. There are easy tasks…and bigger challenges.

We invited Rebecca Billings, WebQA Engineer, to join us in telling Ambassadors more about One and Done and how Firefox Student Ambassadors can get started on it! Following the talk, we’ll answer your program questions.

RSVP here: http://bit.ly/1EOdORc

Develop in the App of the Month Contest!

Congratulations to our December & January App of the Month winner Anand Varanasi from BEC Firefox Club with his app:

• FSA Kit: a must-have app for every Ambassador and aspiring Club Lead! Download and try it out for yourself.

This month we asked Ambassadors what they wanted to see as February theme…and they came up with:

• February Theme: Technical Event Info App. Create an app that features, shows, lists, or allows signups to Technical Events around the world or in your community.

Deadline is February 25th! Winner will receive a Very Splendid Swag Pack. More info on wiki.

Time to get Smart on Privacy.

Ambassadors, you all did a wonderful job this month spearheading the conversation on privacy. To keep it going, there’s now a brand NEW Smart on Privacy page with tools & insights on developing your personal privacy practices. Check it out!

Want to teach other Ambassadors?

As a FSA, we’re all about collaboration and being there to lend a helping hand. Part of this comes from spreading our knowledge so that other students can learn and spread that knowledge across the world.

We’re encouraging all Ambassadors, new and existing, to create Teaching Kits on events you’ve hosted, activities that worked, and anything you think may help another students out. Examples below:

• Personal Contribution Diary: Learn how to keep track of all your contributions as a Firefox Student Ambassador. Made by Deepak Upendra.
• Kidzilla: Kidzilla is an event aimed at education children about the basics of Computers, internet and other tech topics in a fun and interactive manner. Made by Sathyabama Firefox Club.

A section on our wiki will be created to share these teaching kits. E-mail firefoxstudents[at]mozilla[dot]com with subject “Teaching Kit: –insert your title-” to submit.

We received another round of impressive entries for FSA & Firefox Club of the Month. You guys are all amazing! One particular Ambassador and one Firefox Club stood out. Please congratulate Bhushan Dandgavhal as the FSA of the Month and NRI Mozillians Club as the Firefox Club of the Month!

FSA of the Month December – Bhushan Dandgavhal

Bhushan Dandgavhal studied in Computer Applications (MCA), is a software engineer by profession and a tech enthusiast at heart! He is the first to start the Clean India initiative in the Mozilla community, a participant of Nashik Firefox OS education challenge, and is now an active contributor to the Marathi localization team. He enjoys playing chess, football, and rocking out the dance floor. Being an Ambassador is all about starting new things in your community and finding new ways to contribute. Keep up the good work Bhushan!

“I contribute to Open Source as much as I can and in all the ways I can :-)” – Bhushan

Club of the Month December – NRI Mozillians

FSAs from the Institute of Information Science and Technology, Bhopal show tremendous dedication and love for Mozilla. Their club, NRI Mozillians, has welcomed new students who knew nothing of the open Web and trained them to become now active contributors in the region. They recently hosted a successful AppDay with an introduction to the FSA Program, talks on OS Development, and an Appmaker session to wrap up. Their club members continue to support community events, including the latest Hour of Code @ Bhopal. NRI Mozillians have built an active team who are constantly doing good.

Congratulations on your achievements NRI Mozillians and continue to contribute passionately!

Apply to become the next FSA & Firefox Club of the Month!

We had tons of entries for FSA & Firefox Club of the Month. Each and every single one of them were impressive but one FSA and one Firefox Club stood out. Please congratulate Deepak Upendra as the FSA of the Month and Firefox at SSUET as the Firefox Club of the Month!

FSA of the Month November – Deepak Upendra

Deepak Upendra is a first year B.C.A. at Nizam College, Hyderabad. He’s a computer geek interested in everything from design to app development to helping others out. His positive attitude and outside the box thinking has shown tremendously in his contributions to Mozilla. Deepak has mentored several students on Webmaker (he’s a Supermentor!), an active contributor to QA, Army of Awesome, and organized a series of events at his university and in his community.

You can see all of his contributions here and read about his first 6 months of becoming a Mozillian. Be prepare to be blown away! Congratulations Deepak on becoming the Firefox Student Ambassador of the Month for November 2014!

Club of the Month November – Firefox at SSUET

FSAs at the Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology (SSUET) in Karachi, Pakistan founded their Firefox Club in November. In just a month, they have shown incredible growth and potential. From hosting a Moz Meetup to throwing a fantastic Firefox 10th Anniversary event, Firefox at SSUET demonstrates how influential a group of students with common interest and passion can do when they come together in a mission to keep the Web open. Please continue the great work and strive to be the role models at your university!

Check out the Firefox 10th Anniversary meetup at SSUET here. Congratulations Firefox at SSUET on becoming the Firefox Club of the Month for November 2014!

Apply to become the next FSA & Firefox Club of the Month!

Hi there! We hope everyone had a GREAT month. As you all know, the FSA Program is back on track with new structure, new changes, and exciting updates. You may have received the October newsletter already. Here, we will go more into detail about what’s going on to keep everything transparent and to keep you in the loop. It’s a long blog post, but you will be updated!

New Beginner’s Guide

If you’ve recently became an Ambassador in the last 3-4 months, we’d love for you to complete the Beginner’s Guide. It’ll teach you about Mozilla, about our products, and about this program. Be sure not to skip any steps! After completion, you may receive your first FSA Open Badge.

FSA x Maker Party Badge

There’s now a special badge EXCLUSIVELY for Firefox Student Ambassadors! If you’ve planned and hosted a Maker Party at your university or in your local community, you can now apply to receive a FSA Maker Party Badge. But wait! Make sure you’ve filled out the event reporter and/or wrote a blog post (with photos) about what happened at your Maker Party. If you haven’t hosted a Maker Party yet, start planning with your friends or Firefox Club and #TeachtheWeb today!

Say Hello to FSA E-Board & Regional Ambassador Leads!

• Student Working Group and Rep Advisers have merged to create the FSA Executive Board. Regional Marketing Ambassadors have been revamped to create one single body that include Reps called Regional Ambassador Leads.
• FSA E-Board consists of dedicated contributors to the FSA community. They make decisions on the overall structure of the FSA Program. It’s a small team, but it’s doing big things for you!
• RALs are Reps and experienced FSAs that help advise new and existing Firefox Clubs in their country. Say hello and thanks to your new mentors! Reach out to your respective RAL when you begin planning events in your region.
• E-Board and RALs are selected based off of nomination. All of them have contributed tremendously to the Mozilla community before being chosen. A new round of election will start every 6 months. As you become an FSA, work hard and you can one day be given the opportunity to join!

App of the Month Contest

• A winner has been announced for September’s theme Educational App. Congratulations to Siddharth Pharate from Firefox Club @ MITCOE! Check out his HTML5 Edu App.
• For September, we allowed Appmaker apps to be submitted in celebration of the relaunch of the Contest. We want to thank everyone who entered! There was one that stood out: Chaitali Kulkarni from Mozillian’s Arena. Check out her Appmaker Correct It App.
• October’s theme is Local Holiday. Make an app about a holiday in your country so we can celebrate together! Keep in mind that starting October, all submissions into the Contest must be a quality HTML5 app submitted into the Marketplace.

Official Firefox Student Ambassadors Group

• Although only recently launched, we are receiving many requests to join and are slowly filtering through all the requests. To speed up the process, you may request for a current member that you know to add you, decorate your cover photo/profile pic with Firefox-related images to be easily identified, or change your work title to “Firefox Student Ambassador”.
• Know that there are regional groups out there ran by the community that you may join too to receive support such as:
  1. Firefox Student Ambassadors India
  2. Firefox Student Ambassadors Indonesia
  3. Firefox Student Ambassadors Bangladesh
  4. Firefox Student Ambassadors Philippines
• There’s also a way for you to chat with other Ambassadors through our IRC channel #firefoxstudents.

Official Hashtag!

• Our official hashtag is #FirefoxStudents. Anytime you have something to share online relating to Firefox and the FSA Program, be sure to include the hashtag so others may find your post, like it, and share with their friends!

Club Lead Training

• A new Club Lead Training process is being created by our E-Board’s VP of Club Development and will be launched this month.
• What this means is all previous applicants who’ve applied to become a Club Lead will be notified. The training will be much more extensive to prepare an FSA to become the leader at their university. All existing Club Lead will also be asked to participate in the training.
• Applicants who didn’t previously apply will have an opportunity to be entered in the new training as well.

Events

• If you are hosting an event in the upcoming months, we’d love for you to include it in our Events page on our wiki. It is currently under construction and will be relaunched this month.
• In addition to the relaunch of our Events page, there will also be a way for you to request Swag for your event – but wait, before you get too excited, remember that there are limited gear to go around! It will be a strict process. But we’re always here to support you, swag or not.

Recognition

• There are so many of you doing GREAT work around the world. And don’t worry, we’ve noticed them all. A new recognition system is being put into place. We’re getting you new badges, certificates, and ways to be acknowledged by the whole FSA community. You love your job as an Ambassador and we love you back for it!
• Look for the Recognition page on our wiki to be released.

Always Check the Wiki

With the Program going through exciting changes, new information will always be updated on the Wiki. When the new Club Lead Training, Events, and Recognition launch – they will first appear on the Wiki before anywhere else. The Wiki is our main FSA Portal and where you can access the things you need.

Thank you everyone for your continuous contributions to the FSA Program. Whether it’s a simple tweet about Firefox or a large Webmaker event to educate people about the Web, you are part of a global mission to keeping the power of the Web in the hands of users everywhere. And you are all doing GREAT. Keep rocking and always strive for more.

GO FIREFOX STUDENT AMBASSADORS!