Become a Shalyam campus ambassador

A Shalyam campus ambassador is a student who completes their own college's page on Shalyam and helps up to 5 nearby colleges do the same, over a 3-month term — for a certificate, a reference letter, and an optional badge, with no selling and no payment involved at any point. This post explains exactly what the role is, what it asks of you, what you get back, and what it will never ask you to do.

Shalyam's college pages are built from government records and from facts that students, alumni and college staff submit with proof. Most pages are still missing details that only someone close to the college — a current student — is in the best position to fill in or point a reviewer toward. The ambassador role exists for students who want to do that for their own college, and a handful of nearby ones, in an organised way.

Summary

• The role runs for 3 months.
• You complete your own college's page, and you can help with up to 5 nearby colleges.
• Part of the role is inviting classmates to contribute too.
• In return you get a certificate, a reference letter after you finish the 3 months, and an optional badge on your Shalyam contributor profile (the badge system is still being built — see "What's coming" below).
• You never sell anything, you are never paid per submission, and you never collect or submit another person's personal data.

What the role actually is

An ambassador is not a sales role and not a paid gig-work role. It is a time-boxed volunteer role built around the same contribution tools already open to any visitor — the "Add or fix this info" button on a college page — used with more focus and some direct outreach to classmates.

Concretely, the role covers:

• Your own college's page. Go through its sections (fees, programmes and intake, admission and exams, scholarships, hostel, placements, contact for admissions) and submit whatever detail you can back with proof, the same way any contributor would.
• Up to 5 nearby colleges. You're not expected to personally know every detail about colleges other than your own — "up to 5" means this is a ceiling, not a target, and you only take on colleges where you can actually get or point to proof.
• Inviting classmates. Tell people at your own college that the page exists and that they can contribute too, especially for details you don't personally have proof for.

The duration

The role lasts 3 months. It is not open-ended, and it is not a one-off task — it's meant to give you enough time to actually get your own college's page into reasonable shape and have a few of the nearby ones started, without it becoming a standing commitment past that window.

What you get

None of these are payment, and none of them are conditional on hitting a submission quota — the role description does not set one.

What's coming: a badge system is planned for contributors (college/services/contributor_badges.py, reusing the existing get_college_champions logic) but is not built yet. If you join now, your badge is a promise for later, not something you'll see on your profile on day one — we'll be upfront about that at sign-up too.

What you never do

Three things are explicitly out of scope for this role, no exceptions:

• No selling. You are not asking anyone for money, and you are not selling Shalyam, a college, or anything else to anyone.
• No payment per submission. You are not paid per form you fill in or per college you touch — the certificate and reference letter are the recognition for taking part, not a piece-rate.
• No personal data of others. You never collect, hold, or submit another person's personal data as part of this role. Every submission still goes through the same consent and proof process as any contributor's — you are not a shortcut around that.

How to apply

The ambassador role is currently offered directly to students at Shalyam's pilot colleges, through someone already working with the programme — not through a public sign-up form yet. If you're a student at a pilot college and want to take part, use the contact link below and mention which college you attend; someone will follow up with the full one-page role description and a yes/no conversation, the same way the first ambassadors joined.

Contact Shalyam and mention your college if you'd like to take part.