[W3B] Spring Semester Kickoff & Recruiting - Applications Due 1/29!

Hope winter break was rejuvenating and full of fun! Alas, the time has come for the 2023 Spring Semester to kick into gear.

In this newsletter, we'll be recapping the club's milestones so far, what we've got cooking up, and details about recruiting and applications for those interested in joining the team!

Winter Recap & Spring Kickoff

[W3B] Who are we and what is our mission?

[W3B] built its foundations just this last August, during the Fall 2022 semester – new, fresh, but committed to its mission: creating a community that addresses the missing aspect of blockchain education at Penn

Former TA's of CIS 2330 (Blockchain) sought to answer these questions:

• How can students learn about blockchain if they don’t take CIS 2330?
• What should 2330 students do with their blockchain knowledge after taking the course?
• Where can students passionate about blockchain find like-minded people to build and socialize with?

Since August, W3B and its now growing team have been working hard to build a thriving blockchain community that emphasizes its four pillars: Education, Building, Fun, and Career.

Winter Recap: What have we accomplished?

Education:

The W3B workshop series has been a highlight of the community so far, covering topics such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solidity, ZK Proofs, and Web3 Security. Special thanks to all the volunteers and speakers, such as CIS 700 Head TA Elizabeth Dinella!

We also held two educational speaker sessions from Curio on "A Primer in Building On-Chain Games" as well as from Binance & The Brooker Group on "Venture Investing and Start Ups in Web 3.0".

Building

W3B hosted its own mini Hackathon during Fall Break, sponsored by Filecoin, with rewards including cash, swag, and a Ledger Nano S Plus!

A huge highlight of the semester was W3B sending a team over to the TRON hackathon in Boston, taking home a prize of $8000 with GroupBy, a blockchain-powered split payment platform running on TRON blockchain.

Fun

Sometimes, what matters most is the friends you make along the way. W3B held multiple socials this Fall, with sponsored BYOs, Study Hours, a Halloweekend trip, conference trips and more!

Many members attended the SmartCon Web3 Conference in NYC, where W3B was able to connect with those deeply in the industry. W3B also spent some time abroad, dropping by in Europe at the FIL Lisbon Conference!

Career

W3B was fortunate to have speakers from Galaxy Ventures, Curio.gg, The Brooker Group, and Binance Labs come speak from industry experience and discuss opportunities in the world of blockchain!

If you've been keeping up with the newsletter, you've seen the job postings – W3B has been updating a weekly job board, providing the inside scoop on web3 related opportunities.

Beyond the Pillars

W3B has established successful partnerships with Filecoin, a sponsorship from TRON, and have been incorporated as a non-profit in PA, with 501c pending and ESAC recognition in progress! W3B has also partnered with BAF, Blockchain Acceleration Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on accelerating the development and adoption of Web3.

We've also started developing a social media presence on Twitter and Instagram (check us out!), and have also got a nifty weekly newsletter up and running – thanks for reading!

What's next? Spring Semester Sneak-Peek:

W3B will be continuing its educational workshop sessions, and are looking for more industry speakers to share their insight. Tentative date for our next workshop: 11/25. As for building, we're looking to host a fractionalized hackathon...  you'll hear more about it soon. W3B is also looking to have a club projects showcase, and will be creating a centralized library for learning resources – yes, we will be building a website!

We've got a roster of fun mini-events lined up, from food to trivia, so stay tuned and look out for announcements! Beyond that, we're looking to continue internal development, polishing our branding, core team, and partnerships – we'd love some help, so please check out the application below!

RECRUITING AND APPLICATION INFO:

APPLICATIONS DUE 11:59 PM EST, 1/29

We're still a new and growing club. We'd love for you to join and grow with us! If you have any ideas, suggestions, or think you could help – consider applying for a team!

As a reminder, our larger community is always accepting new members with no application needed. Everyone is welcome to come to any of our announced events!

Application: tinyurl.com/w3b23sp

Challenge Information: https://www.notion.so/W3B-23-Spring-Recruiting-2ff2f41185864b2fac6c3d2b6c7e5d33

Not sure about which team?

Applying for a team does not mean you can’t switch to another discipline! Team switching or taking on extra responsibilities in a different team is totally cool. Regardless of which team you are on, you enjoy the same community and can learn web3 things with all of us.

How long are the challenges?

• Most tasks should take 1-2 hours.
• We really want to see your thinking process so meta-commentary about your process or ideas is encouraged.
• The written submissions should usually be no more than 1-2 pages. That means 1 page is fine. 2 pages is fine. If you stopped at 1 paragraph, you could probably dive deeper into the details of your plan/proposal.
• Feel free to think big — What if you are in charge of the team? What if you are in charge of the club? Where do you think the club should be going?

That's all for this week. Welcome back to school!

Interested in joining the core team? Apply here!
Learn more about our mission

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