Top campus ambassador programs for students in 2025: application links and tips from past campus leaders
OpenAI, Perplexity, Anthropic, Figma, Notion, Partiful, and more
💎 Welcome to future-proof, where I show you how to build the skills and relationships that will define the next decade and beyond.
If you’re not a subscriber yet, here’s what you missed:
Read time: 12 minutes
Update: congratulations to the 80+ students in my Instagram community who got accepted into these programs!
In a world where AI is reshaping every industry, the real edge comes from pairing up-to-date skills with authentic relationships. Campus leader programs are one of the best-kept secrets for students: they offer a front-row seat to how companies actually build and launch products, while giving you a rare chance to build connections with the people behind them. No wonder they can even translate to full-time jobs at that company!
This post covers:
Application timelines for campus leader programs at top tech companies
Why campus ambassador programs help you stand out on your resume and interviews — and sample bullet points you can add to your resume
What campus leaders are doing now
Application tips from past campus leaders and strategists for Perplexity, Claude, Figma, and more
Campus leader programs at top tech companies
Note: applications often close early. Please click the links below to see the most up to date info directly from the program website. Congratulations to members of my Instagram community who have already been accepted!
ChatGPT/OpenAI campus ambassador program (CSU) — deadline 8/15
Perplexity campus strategist — deadline 8/15
Figma campus leader — deadline 8/10. Detailed tips from past campus leaders.
Partiful campus leader — deadline not specified
Adobe student ambassador program — deadline 7/31
Anthropic/Claude Campus Ambassador (for all students) — started sending acceptances
Anthropic/Claude Builder Club (technical track) — started sending acceptances
Notion campus leader (available in 40+ countries!) — closed
GitHub campus expert — opens in August
DoorDash campus launcher
MATLAB student ambassador
Intuit + Credit Karma campus ambassador
GivePulse ambassador program
Postman campus leader program
Samsung campus ambassador program
Microsoft student ambassador
ChatGPT Lab for students — deadline 9/21
What do campus leaders do?
Claude campus leader, Marcus:
Hackathons: We sponsored AI Hackathon by Cal Hacks, the org running the world’s largest collegiate Hackathon. Had 1400+ hackers with 40% of builds using Claude!
Perplexity campus strategist, Trivi:
Organize events: If you ask for a budget for an idea, they’ll give it if it’s good. This includes everything from buying people boba to flying an airplane over a stadium.
Attend exclusive webinars with Perplexity staff. We even had one with co-founder Denis Yarats. No transcripts, no recordings.
Get clubs and professors to partner with you. Last semester, this was done through a form for Perplexity for Educators. Applicants were tracked through the “referral” section of that form.
Work under a Regional Lead who’s usually a former successful senior strategist. Most queries go to them, but occasionally you’ll be interfacing with the head of the program (someone on the growth team) if speed or high budgets are needed
Meet monthly targets, which are usually incentivized through gift cards, swag, etc. Best overall activation (pretty subjective, based on a lot of criteria such as views, impact, signups, innovativeness) was rewarded with SF HQ trip.
Figma campus leader, Xenia:
FigBuild: A multi-campus 8+ university hackathon where I designed assets and branding seen by thousands of students
Panels: Yuhki Yamashita (Figma CPO), Jenny Wen (Figma Director of Design)
Creative campus events: For Arcade Takeover, we rented an arcade, gave coins to play machines, a QR code maze with Figma related riddles for prizes
Check out additional events that Figma campus leaders have hosted! Examples:
Why campus ambassador programs help you stand out on your resume and interviews
I’ve interviewed many students for software engineering and product management roles, and this experience really stands out on resumes and interviews because you demonstrate skills that are useful for ANY job:
Brand partnership credibility: A major brand hand-picked you and trusted you to build community engagement, drive brand awareness, and represent their brand on campus. This shows you have the judgment, communication skills, and professionalism that a respected company would stake their reputation on
Real-world impact: You directly influenced a major company's product roadmap
Cross-functional collaboration - You worked directly with marketing, growth, product, and eng teams at the company, while managing campus relationships
And your impact is easy quantifiable in terms of:
Event attendance
Product adoption
Product usage
Resume template examples
“Drove 40% increase in Figma adoption across 8 universities through a multi-campus Hackathon with 2,500 participants.”
“Contributed to $50,000 ARR by partnering with [company]'s enterprise sales team to identify 10 student organizations likely to upgrade from free to paid plans, and leading 10 workshops that showcase the capabilities available in paid plans.”
“Led 50 user interviews with students and professors and presented key takeaways to the company's product and engineering leadership, influencing 2 education-focused features for their Q2 roadmap.”
What past campus leaders are doing now:
Isis was a campus strategist for Perplexity at UChicago. Now, she works on special projects at Perplexity.
Marcus was a campus leader for Claude at UC Berkeley. Now, he works as a VC fellow at SJF Ventures.
Application tips & FAQs
Thank you to Marcus (Claude campus leader from Berkeley), Xenia (Figma campus leader from UW), Isis (Perplexity campus strategist from UChicago), Trivi (Perplexity campus strategist from Penn State), and other wonderful campus leaders in my Instagram community for sharing these tips!
What’s your best tip?
Show how you’re already living the day-to-day life of a campus leader.
Common mistakes to avoid?
From the perspective of someone who reviews applications: sometimes, we see applicants list 100 activities and worry that they will not have the time to participate in the program.
What experiences did you highlight on your application?
I focused on my leadership in design, tech, and community building, how I actively showed up in those spaces at my university.
My approach: I listed each role with a brief description of what I achieved, showing how I was already living the day-to-day of a Campus Leader.
Event Leadership & Community Building
Hosting tech/design events and workshops
Campus ambassador roles for other companies
Leading non-profits or tech-for-good initiatives
Speaking on panels at tech club events
Mentoring younger students in design and tech
TA (Teaching Assistant) roles in a relevant courses
Mentoring at 10+ hackathons or hosting school wide hackathons
Promoting events on campus
What do you wish you emphasized more on your application?
I wish I emphasized operational skills:
Booking campus rooms and coordinating logistics
Building relationships with students, profs, and university departments
End-to-end event planning (from concept to execution)
Collaborating with partner clubs, departments, or hackathon teams
Budget management and vendor coordination
If there’s an application video, how do you stand out?
Make it count.
Thousands of people apply. What stands out is extra effort—cinematic videos, thoughtful editing, or authentic storytelling.
A well-crafted, edited video shows authenticity
If you can’t edit professionally, focus on great storytelling
Show your creative, personable, and professional self
Being authentic shows the team that you can be trusted and committed to best representing the brand.
See the full list of Figma-specific tips here.
What if you’re not a pro at Figma/Claude/Notion/etc?
Emphasize that you know what students want to learn, since we often organize workshops for beginners and we want to reach students from a variety of backgrounds.
Check out additional resources:
Product management internship & full-time application dates (Google APM, Meta RPM, and more)
How I became a senior AI product manager, without AI experience or a CS degree
Product sense case interview answers: a detailed ChatGPT/Claude prompt
How to prepare for AI product manager interviews, part 1: product sense