Students

We strive to both prepare students for socially consious roles in tech while creating a supportive community. Here are some fun events we hold for our members and our application information.

Application Process

  • Written ApplicationFall Quarter Weeks 1-3

    We accept written applications every year at the start of Fall Quarter. We have positions open for developers, PM's, and designers, so you can indicate your position preferences here. If you want to chat in person or have questions, come see us at the WOW Club Showcase or send us an email.

  • InterviewFall Quarter Weeks 2-4

    We will reach out to schedule an interview if your interests and skills match what we are looking for. Don't stress about your interview! We want to get to know you and why you're passionate about joining H4I and our mission. If you are applying for a developer position, we may ask technical questions, but we encourage everyone to apply regardless of experience level.

  • Notified of DecisionMid Fall Quarter

    We will email you when we have reached a decision on your application. Unfortunately, we are not able to accept every student who applies. The number of students in our club is determined by the number of nonprofit projects we take on for the year. However, we are taking on more and more projects and growing the number of students and positions every year.

Events

Educational

We start each year off with bootcamp, which is your chance to learn what Hack4Impact Cal Poly is all about! During bootcamp, our members attend workshops and get familiar with the tools they will use on their project team. Throughout the year we also host tech talks and speaker events with professors and other professionals.

Social

We love our work because of our amazing members! We host social events so that all of our members can get to know each other and take a break from their school work. We've hosted game nights, events with other clubs, gone on hikes, and taken many trips to Slodoco. We also have a banquet every year to celebrate everyone's hard work.

Giving Back

We try to learn about our nonprofit partners' missions and work beyond our technical projects as well! We volunteer with every nonprofit we partner with for the year so that each member learns about their work, regardless of their project team. One example of a volunteer event we had was going to plant trees with the Environmental Center of SLO.

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of roles can students have?
We recruit for software developers, product managers, and designers. On each nonprofit project team, we have around 4-5 developers, 1-2 product managers, and 1-2 designers. If there is a role that we don't currently offer and that interests you, let us know! We want our members to be passionate about their work and are always looking to make our project teams stronger.
How many students are in Hack4Impact?
Hack4Impact is a national organization, so there are currently around 400 students nationally. At the Cal Poly chapter, we currently have around 25 members. However, the number of members we have is determined by how many nonprofit projects we take on for the year, and we are constantly growing.
I'm a first year. Do I need any specific technical experience to be a developer?
Nope! The most important characteristics we consider during the application process are a passion for our mission and a commitment to learning. We encourage you to start exploring web development, and do take web development experience into consideration during applications, but it is not required.
What major do you have to be to apply?
We accept and consider applications from students of all majors. We believe creating tech for social good requires diverse perspectives and experiences, so we take pride in being a multidisciplinary club. The majority of our current members are CPE, CSC, and SE majors, but we also have people from CLA and CAED.
What is the expected time commitment?
Most students spend about 3 hours per week on Hack4Impact project work. Each project team determines their own schedule, but most meet for about 1 hour per week to plan and delegate tasks. The other time is spent working on the project individually. We also hold general meetings every week, which are about 1 hour long. H4I holds many other events during the year, such as volunteer events, tech talks, and social events. These events are not mandatory, but we highly encourage our members to attend.