Background Nursing students and registered nurses often feel underprepared for their roles in dementia care. Extracurricular activities offer nursing students additional opportunities for professional development. A student-academic partnership initiative was developed in which nursing students delivered dementia friends sessions to their peers before formal taught content.

Aim To explore dementia champion nursing students’ experiences, identify factors that affect collaborative working and make recommendations for future student-academic partnership projects.

Method In individual and dual interviews, three students were asked about their experiences of participating in the initiative. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using a thematic analysis framework.

Findings Four themes were identified: commitment to working with people who have dementia, difficulties in taking on extracurricular responsibilities, personal development, and relationships and collaboration.

Conclusion Students were motivated by the need to provide high-quality dementia care. They identified benefits of collaborative working including development of time management, team working, leadership, communication and presentation skills. Future projects should take into account student workloads and offer rewards that are congruent with nursing students’ values.