Hey everyone, you might have heard about different ambassador programs or student community programs which help students grow their soft skills and hard skills. There are tons of ambassador programs available, you can check a few of them here.

Today, I am going to introduce you to a new ambassador program called SAWO Labs Champ Program and tell you how I applied, got selected and my journey so far :)

What is SAWO Labs?

SAWO is an authentication solution that helps websites and apps, onboard users, without passwords and OTPs thus reducing bounce rate and increase conversion.
Check their official documentation here.

What is SAWO Labs Champ Program?

SAWO Labs Champ Program is an initiative led by SAWO Labs, which aims to uplift contributors who are adding value to the community using SAWO. This is their way of saying thank you to the contributors who help SAWO grow as a product and as a community.

In the Champ Program, there are two profiles:

• Developer Champ: Champs who will contribute to SAWO SDK by using it in different projects, provide feedbacks to the developers and inspire others to use SAWO in their projects and join their Discord community.

• Community Champ: Champs who will contribute by speaking and hosting community events of SAWO. They can publish technical blogs, write about experiences with SAWO, inspire others to use SAWO in their projects and join their Discord community.

How I got in?

I first heard about SAWO Labs when I participated in Developer Days hackathon. I joined the Discord community and everyone was so welcoming. Got so many insights on different career opportunities, got handful of great resources, made new friends, overall this was the best online community I ever joined.

Then in the month of February, I came across SAWO Labs Champ Program. The deadline for applying was 3 days away when I heard about this program. I quickly applied, and was hoping to get selected. I thought applying late would make very little sense as many people might have applied and got selected already. But to my surprise, I received a selection mail saying that my application has been accepted, and there would be a telephonic interview.

First interview was conducted by Animesh Pathak and Chhavi Garg, both were SAWO Champs from Cohort-1. I was nervous and hoping my interview goes well. The interview went very well, questions were based on our technical skills, what do you expect from this community and how would you contribute towards it.

After a few days, I got another mail, saying that I aced my first interview, and they would like to conduct 2nd and final interview round. This interview was conducted by Meghna Das, she is community manager at SAWO Labs. This was more of getting to know the community and why should they consider me as a Champ for this program. This interview also went very well and finally after a few days, I get a selection mail saying I was selected into the program!!

My experience with the community

After getting selected, there was an onboarding call, where all the Developer and Community Champs interacted with each other. All of them shared their fun little experiences, but the main highlight of that call was Prabhat Sahu. He made the onboarding call so much more interactive and fun.

The SAWO community is growing and has been great throughout. You can share your resources, hangout with community members, participate in weekly quizzes, get your GitHub profile reviewed!! My profile was reviewed by Aditya Oberai, and since then I have improved upon it and got so many new opportunities.

There are so many benefits one can get by joining SAWO Labs!! After getting selected into program, they made social mentions on their public profiles!!

Did I tell you they give out swags? Yes, you read it correct, after winning a weekly quiz, they send out swags to top three winners!!

Any Harry Potter fans here? SAWO Labs have divided Champs into four houses:

• Gryffindor
• Hufflepuff
• Ravenclaw
• Slytherin

I am part of Hufflepuff, which is led by previous Super Champ, Divya Sri Darimisetti

In this program, we are engaged in doing tasks which can be writing blogs, building projects, spreading the word about this community, etc. There are weekly fun sessions on Discord channel where all community members interact with each other. If you get stuck anywhere while using SAWO SDK, or have any doubts, you can even have one-on-one call with Super Champs.

My takeaways

In these 2-3 months, I learned a lot from this community. It helped me grow personally and professionally. With the tasks, support, and the resources they gave, I was able to learn how to work in a team, solve queries, manage my time and increase my engagement with online community overall.

Hope this blog helped you all to understand what SAWO Labs Champ Program is and how it can benefit you if you are a part of it!!
Do join SAWO community today on Discord!!