Jordan Kunzika ’16 Brings Google to Dartmouth’s Campus
Jordan Kunzika ‘16 is bringing the programs and initiatives of Google directly to campus through his role as a Google Student Ambassador this year. Through his position, Kunzika serves as a campus resource to provide expertise on Google-related products, services and job opportunities.
Kunzika hopes to raise awareness about Google and its products while keeping the nature of Dartmouth’s campus culture in mind. His first initiative this year encouraged students to purchase course textbooks on Google Play, as he found that it is often cheaper than buying through bookstores or other online resources.
“I researched classes that had expensive books and lots of students,” Kunzika said in an email. “If I found that you could get that book cheaper on Google Play, I emailed the professor to let them know that they could tell their students to get the book from Google Play instead.”
As a liaison with Google, Kunzika’s initiatives this year also includes a viewing party for the YouTube Music Awards, student opinion surveys on Google Apps for Edu as an alternative to Microsoft, and the promotion of the use of Google Chrome on campus. Kunzika has worked to promote Google Chrome by developing a Chrome extension called MyDart, which centralizes online campus resources such as BannerStudent, Darmtouth library resources, and LaundryView.
The use of MyDart also fixes a glitch that typically occurs on Chrome when performing a course search on the academic timetable, Kunzika said. “By fixing that glitch, I was hoping to begin changing the student perspective towards the Chrome browser,” he said in an email.
Kunzika was nominated for the Student Ambassador position after participating in a Google program called Chrome Academy last summer. He and other participants were encouraged to apply for the position throughout the summer program. About one-third of last year’s Chrome Academy participants were later selected to become Google Student Ambassadors, Kunzika said.
Kunzika hopes to continue his involvement with Google beyond the yearlong duration of the Student Ambassador position. He plans to reapply for the position for future years and to seek an internship with Google for next summer, he said.