outreachy essay answers

Advice for students applying to InterMine through Outreachy

Outreachy differs from GSoC in many aspects. Unlike GSoC, Outreachy participants can contribute in design work, documentation, community management, marketing, etc. Also, Outreachy applicants don’t have to be students, and could be graduates, people returning to work after a break, or perhaps something else.

Submit your initial application

The initial application includes your basic details as well as some additional information and essays. You have to answer these four essay questions -

• Does your learning environment have few people who share your identity or background? Please provide details.
• What systemic bias or discrimination have you faced while building your skills?
• What systemic bias or discrimination would you face if you applied for a job in the technology industry of your country?
• What barriers or concerns have kept you from contributing to free and open source software?

We encourage you to write your personal stories and past experiences. We want you to know that we won’t judge your grammar, writing style or spelling. Please provide examples and statistics wherever you can.

All accepted applicants of this process are eligible for the Contributing period.

Select a project and Contribute

Browse our project ideas list . If you’re interested in a specific project, read the project description in detail and there should be a “Get started” section that will let you know what to do next. Please feel free to pop onto the #Outreachy channel on our chat server if you get stuck or have questions.

Please note that you are required to make atleast one contribution to be eligible to be selected as an intern. Applicants are also required to record contributions on the outreachy website. When in doubt, ask the project mentor! It’s good to always ask for suggestions.

Getting started

• Take the FlyMine tutorial or watch some helpful videos . InterMine has lots of mines (see the registry ), FlyMine is an InterMine instance loaded with fruit fly data. This is how people access data in an InterMine using the web browser.
• Take the Python or Perl InterMine tutorials. InterMine has client libraries in Python, Perl, JavaScript, R and Java. This is how people access data in an InterMine using the command line. We also have an early JavaScript tutorial under development.

Now you have a pretty good idea of how people use InterMine to search genomic data!

Please note that only applicants that record a contribution to a project will be able to submit a final application through the Outreachy website. The final application asks questions about past experience, relevant projects, proposed timeline for outreachy project.

Application Guidelines

We expect to receive, as we did last year, lots of high quality applications. So please do give your application some thought!

• A clear understanding of the problem we need solved.
• A clear plan of action. What are you going to actually do?
• Milestones should be achievable and realistic.
• Things happen! We can’t foresee every problem! We are happy to see applications that say “I will do A and B. If there is time, I will do C.”
• Although the Outreachy application is different from GSoC, you can read the proposal from one of our successful 2018 GSoC applicants , this will help you in writing your final application.

Useful links

• We’re @intermineorg on twitter.
• We have a #gsoc-and-outreachy channel on our discord server at chat.intermine.org .
• InterMine developer mailing list. Joining link and Archive
• InterMine’s blog. Here’s a blog post  about some of the cool things the community has done with InterMine resources.
• Our interactive web services docs
• Our very in-the-works new ClojureScript UI. Demo , repo
• Developer documentation

Outreachy links

• The Outreachy Student guide : A must read guide for applicants.
• The Outreachy internship guide : A must read guide for the selected interns.
• Outreachy Timeline : Please note that we are participating in the Mid-year internships (May-August).

How I applied for Outreachy and succesfully became and intern.

As a junior programmer applying into Outreachy was a big challenge. Even the thought of deciding to apply was a scary one too. Open source was not something I was very much engaged in but I had to give it a try, after all, you never know if you are ready till you are tested.

Around November 2018 a few months after I had just started learning to code, a friend of mine Perside who was a contributor and intern at Wikimedia for Google Summer of code encouraged me to engage in open source, for it was the best way to learn and fast too.

Me being eager to learn took up the challenge and came into the Wikimedia Organisation.I joined Wikimedia because it used the technologies I was learning which were HTML,CSS, PHP.That’s where I began to know the world of open source its difficulties, and how to overcome them. Getting around was not easy. Getting to know how to use version control services like Git/Github and Wikimedia’s own method of contributing were major milestones but I liked them because in overcoming them I learned a lot and with Perside’s help and the help from the Wikimedia community I was able to make 5 beginner Pull Requests within 2 months. For me, it was a huge achievement at the time.

At the launching of the May to August Outreachy session and Google Summer of code, I decided to go in for Outreachy because I knew I was not good enough for tough competitions like GSOC but the nature of Outreachy is to engage girls in underrepresented tech countries into open source so then it doesn't have to be very competitive.

I began my application late and before I was accepted by the Outreachy website Wikimedia was already flooding with applicants and many micro tasks already being solved. The competition was already too high so then I had to move to another org. A fault I made when preparing for Outreachy was that after contributing to Wikimedia for some time I left for a few months and returned only during the application period which was very wrong.And from that, I learned that Perseverance is the key.

I then decided to find another Org to contribute to. Looking for alternate organizations was very difficult especially with a candidate like me who had limited skill set. In my mind, at the time I was searching for an Org that uses my technologies but PHP organisations were very limited.

Searching for an Org gave me a lot of exposure; I had to join mailing lists of several Orgs, Slack Channels, Zulip Chats, IRC chats e.t.c Talking on an Organisation’s mailing list was major empowerment. I had to know how to be Polite, how to speak to the point and so much more.

Finally, I found an Org I could contribute to. The Mifos Initiative it is a U.S.-based non-profit that exists to support and collectively lead the open source Mifos X project. Its goal is to speed the elimination of poverty by enabling financial service providers to more effectively and efficiently deliver responsible financial services to the world's 2.5 billion poor and unbanked. Mifos is a very experienced organization and so is very organized when it comes to programs like GSoC and Outreachy. Left with few weeks to the application I started contributing to the project “ Update Mifos X User Manual & Convert to Gitbooks Format “ This project was an easy one it was a documentation project it only entailed the applicants to update images with those found on the Demo app deployed online, Correct grammatical, vocabulary, typo errors and make edits and convert the User manual documentation from Confluence to Gitbook. Since it was very easy the competition was also tough but approachable. It was the sort of project that I could make like 50 or more edits in one day but it was not really what I wanted to use to participate in Outreachy, because I wanted to work on a coding project. Day by Day on the Outreachy website Organisations and projects increased and I was very vigilant.

After contributing to Mifos for 3 weeks I finally saw an Org in my League. Ushahidi, Inc it is a non-profit technology company with staff in nine countries whose mission is to help marginalized people raise their voice and those who serve them to listen and respond better .It provided 2 projects and I was competing for either of them. The Org was very friendly and responsive. I had to begin the process of finding their community chats and familiarity with the codebase and project understanding. It was hectic but I went for it. I got in touch with the project mentors and community members and while trying to contribute I needed help and they responded accurately but it was already 2 weeks to the application deadline I had to hurry. I successfully made a number of Pull Requests recorded them and began to work on an application proposal. I had till the 23rd of March 2019 to apply to MIfos which I did successfully while for USHAHIDI its deadline was the 2nd of April 2019.

“Voice Integration into Ushahidi platform” was the project name. Usually, Outreachy only requires a time plan submitted to the outreachy website and some other short QAs on the Application form. But this project required much more, so after applying to the Outreachy website I still had to submit a project proposal to the Project mentor.

All that was done in due time and I successfully applied for 2 projects in 2 different Organisations. The announcement date drew closer but I did not relent I continued contributing to the Organisation, did more research on my project, and stayed in contact with mentors. Then the announcement date came.

Yayy!! I was selected. What a relief!!!. I was selected for the voice integration project in USHAHIDI but nevertheless, I received appreciation and encouragement from Mifos because at Mifos I made it to the short list of applicants preselected for Outreachy.

Being selected for this project is a huge achievement for me. The few days I have spent in USHAHIDI as an intern have been very exciting. I love the project I am working on it will expose me to new technologies and enable me to increase my skills. I will put in my all to see this project to completion and add an additional Data collection source and feature to the Ushahidi platform

To anyone worried about applying to Outreachy my advice is don’t be afraid of going out there you might be like me thinking it is too early but what better time is there than now. To prepare for Outreachy you need to, first of all, be versed with Open source that will serve as a catalyst to your growth and application strength. Most importantly don’t wait till it is announced before you contribute to an Org.Start now find an Org inline with the technologies you know and begin contributing there. By so doing you have taken a hundred steps more than someone who just comes after the announcement of the internship. Do your best during application. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket by applying to one Org apply to multiple so that you have higher chances but be able to manage them.

Advice for contributors applying to OLS through Outreachy

Outreachy differs from GSoC in many aspects. Unlike GSoC, Outreachy participants can contribute in design work, documentation, community management, marketing, etc. Also, Outreachy applicants don’t have to be contributors, and could be graduates, people returning to work after a break, or perhaps something else.

Submit your initial application

The initial application includes your basic details as well as some additional information and essays. You have to answer these four essay questions -

• Does your learning environment have few people who share your identity or background? Please provide details.
• What systemic bias or discrimination have you faced while building your skills?
• What systemic bias or discrimination would you face if you applied for a job in the technology industry of your country?
• What barriers or concerns have kept you from contributing to free and open source software?

We encourage you to write your personal stories and past experiences. We want you to know that we won’t judge your grammar, writing style or spelling. Please provide examples and statistics wherever you can.

All accepted applicants of this process are eligible for the Contributing period.

Select a project and Contribute

Please note that you are required to make at least one contribution to be eligible to be selected as an intern. Applicants are also required to record contributions on the outreachy website. When in doubt, ask the project mentor! It’s good to always ask for suggestions.

Please note that only applicants that record a contribution to a project will be able to submit a final application through the Outreachy website. The final application asks questions about past experience, relevant projects, proposed timeline for outreachy project.

Application Guidelines

We expect to receive, as we did last year, lots of high quality applications. So please do give your application some thought!

• A clear understanding of the problem we need solved.
• A clear plan of action. What are you going to actually do?
• Milestones should be achievable and realistic.
• Things happen! We can’t foresee every problem! We are happy to see applications that say “I will do A and B. If there is time, I will do C.”
• Although the Outreachy application is different from GSoC, you can read the proposal from a successful 2018 GSoC applicant , this will help you in writing your final application.

Useful links

• We’re @openlifesci on twitter.

Outreachy links

• The Outreachy contributor guide : A must read guide for applicants.
• The Outreachy internship guide : A must read guide for the selected interns.
• Outreachy Timeline

DEV Community

Posted on May 25, 2019 • Updated on May 29, 2020

What, Why and How: Outreachy 101

I recently got selected for Outreachy with Fedora and thought I should document the entire process for other curious souls looking to participate! :)

Note: This article by no means provides a 'hack' or definite steps to get into Outreachy. These are just my thoughts on what worked for me.

As mentioned on the official Outreachy website:

Outreachy provides internships to work in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) . It's a three month remote internship. Outreachy internships provide a wide varity of domains to work in. Projects may include programming, user experience, documentation, illustration, graphical design, or data science.

If you've heard about Google Summer of Code, Outreachy in many ways is similar to it with some key differences:

• While Outreachy is an internship, GSoC is not considered as an 'internship'.
• Outreachy is open to only under-represented individuals in tech whereas GSoC is a student centric program.
• Outreachy is biannual while GSoC runs once per year.
• Stipends for Outreachy are fixed while GSoC stipends may vary depending on where you reside.

Who can apply?

Outreachy has very strict eligibility criteria . Two of the most important ones are:

• Anyone who faces under-representation, systemic bias, or discrimination in the technology industry of their country .
• You must have atleast 49 consecutive days free from full-time commitments .

You can check the complete eligibility criteria on the official website . The initial application verifies your eligibility. More on the same is detailed below.

When can you start?

Outreachy runs twice a year , mid year and end of year. For the mid year round, the application period starts from February and the internship concludes August while for the end of year round, the application period starts from September and the internship concludes in March . If you're a student, depending on where you school is, you can apply to either of these rounds.

Not that all that is out of the way, essentially the most important question to ask here is why do you want to apply for Outreachy . Summer of code have gained a considerable amount of traction in the last few years and if you're based in India, there are GSoC/Outreachy fellows left right and centre. Don't do it because everyone you know is doing it, peer pressure be damned.

Here are some takeaways from my experience that hopefully will help you choose if Outreachy is the best bet for you!

Quality abundance of learning . Contributing to a FOSS project is a huge step up from a personal project. You get to learn plentiful and get a taste of what it's like to be a part of a big system with various working parts. Contributing to the project not only enhances your skill set as a software developer but also endows you with essential soft skills .

Gateway into Open Source Software development . If you're passionate about OSS and have been looking to contribute to the same, Outreachy sets an effective precursor. Getting involved with OSS can be tricky and often daunting for beginners, as was the case with me. Just knowing who to ask help from is barrier breaker. Outreachy provides specific steps on how to connect with your mentor and contact them in case you feel stuck or are in need of help. This brings me to my third most important takeaway.

Build you network . Irrespective of whether you get selected or not, while contributing to the project you get to know and work with experienced and highly talented software developers and your fellow skilled applicants. Interacting and working with OSS veterans across the globe teaches you the current best practices, brings new and enlightening perspectives into focus and exposes you to opportunities you might not have stumbled upon elsewhere.

Credibility If you're like me who regularly needs a reminder to hush that small voice in the back of your head telling you that you're not skilled enough, or often doubt your own capabilities as a software developer, Outreachy will provide that much needed boost to your self-esteem.

Monetary Perks Outreachy provides $5500 USD to each intern as an incentive to get involved in OSS. Additionally, Outreachy also provides $500 USD travel stipend to attend workshops/conferences.

Now if most of the above reasons seem fitting, let's get into the stepping stones towards getting selected for Outreachy.

The Initial Application

The first step during the application period is the initial application. This is for the Outreachy organisers to verify your eligibility. It requires you to answer four essay based question and some others to verify your time availability.

This must be taken extremely seriously . Only after the initial application is accepted, the projects are made visible to the applicants.

Selecting a Project

Going through the list of projects I had these important points in mind:

• Look for a project that will enhance your current skill set and simultaneously nudge you to expand your knowledge spectrum.
• Question to self: Do you see yourself contributing to the project long after the internship is done? If the answer is yes, you're good to go.
• Don't go after an organisation because you've heard too much about it. Again, a tag won't help you if your heart's not in it.

Don't select too many projects and juggle between them as that will only divide your time that could instead be devoted to understanding one/two projects and giving it your best input.

Contribution Period

Outreachy requires you to solve atleast one issue to submit a final application . After introducing yourself on the community's preferred mode of communication, go on the hunt for your first issue to solve.

This is one of the most crucial period based on which mentors decide whether you're fit for the project or not. Some key points to keep in mind are:

Solve as many bugs as possible. Don't just go for issues that fall under your spectrum of knowledge, try to solve issues that urge you to step outside your comfort zone and learn new things on the fly. This will help mentors see your ability to learn and adapt according to project requirements. Be involved not only by contributing but also open issues when you come across a bug.

Be an active member of the community. Communicate effectively with your mentors . Follow the etiquettes to communicate on a public platform. Keep them updated of your progress and any obstacles you're facing.

Do not ask questions to your mentors unless you've done enough research about the same. Respect their time and efforts and use Google and Stack Overflow in abundance .

Help others out as much as possible . I can't stress this enough, don't make this into a dirty race where you belittle your co-applicants or the likes. Genuinely help other contributors and build a supporting community.

Most of all, have fun! Strive for those Eureka moments when you solve bugs or add new features. Give yourself a pat on the back, you've earned it!

Note: If you're like me and big code-base seem daunting, remember, you don't need to know it in its entirety. Start small and build from there.

The Final Application

The final application requires you to record all your contributions mention your experience working with the organisation, give details of any past projects you've made/FOSS organisation you've worked with and supply a timeline mapping out the course of action for the next three months of the internship. Each and every step is important for outreachy organisers to understand if you're suitable for the internship so give plenty time to each and mention any and all details.

After submitting the final application, you can keep on contributing to the project and maintain a steady communication with the mentors.

And, you're IN!

That's it. As I start my internship with Fedora I can safely say, all it needs is consistent efforts by a passionate being .

You can read about my experience during the application period here .

Hope you found something valuable here and most of all the drive to apply for that Summer of Code you've been wanting to since eternity. Quit questioning, take a leap of faith and dive right in!

Feel free to reach out about any doubts concerning the application process, I'll love to help you out! :)

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How I got my Outreachy internship and what I’ve learned so far

by Nguedia Adele

I recently got accepted for an Outreachy internship, working with LibreHealth.

What I’ve been doing so far

I officially began my internship with LibreHealth on the 23rd May and it has been nothing short of awesome. During the period between being accepted and officially beginning work, I have been getting acquainted with the members of the team I’m now a part of. Being really shy and introverted, I thought this was going to be the hardest part for me. But everyone is just so nice and welcoming…they’re all amazing ? . Besides this, I’ve been translating some documents that were written by other candidates.

How did I get here?

I heard about Outreachy a few years ago, when it was still known as Free and Open Source Software Outreach Program for Women. I was walking home from school with friends and we were talking about GSOC (Google Summer of Code). I remember saying I didn’t feel confident enough to try because everyone I know who had taken part in the program were gurus when it came to programming. This friend told me about a “GSOC for girls,” but despite the fact that he encouraged me to apply, I still didn’t think I had what it took. So I didn’t make any moves.

During my final year in University, I got more interested in programming. I thought I’d get better by contributing to free and open-source software (FOSS). I remembered the talk about “GSOC for girls” and started searching online. Lo and behold every time I typed the words “Free and Open Source Software Outreach Program for Women” in my browser, all the results pointed me to Outreachy .

I carried out my research to find out what Outreachy was, and found out that it was the new name of the program I had been looking for. At that time, the December 2017 round had not been launched yet, so I archived it hoping to return to it at a later date. But I got so caught up with school projects that I completely forgot.

After my graduation in December, I put Outreachy at the top of my priority list. The application period had passed for that round, so all I did was research. I talked to former “GSOCers” I knew and read the blogs of some of the candidates on the Outreachy alumni page. I set alarms and reminders so I wouldn’t miss the application period no matter what came up.

When the application period came, I went through the list of projects available and LibreHealth caught my attention. Though I had been told that it was advisable to apply for at least 2 projects, I refused to do so. When I started working with the Libre community, I got so caught up that I didn’t want to stop. I kept telling myself “either I get accepted here or I’ll try again next time. Whatever the case, I’ll keep working.”

After I’d submitted my final application (a few days before the closing date) I went through a few other listed projects and joined some project communication channels. But in the end I didn’t apply for any other projects. I volunteered to start translating some of the documents on LibreHealth EHR modules which been submitted while waiting for the results to be announced.

Oh! Documentation

In school, many lecturers required that we write proper documentation for our projects. I have always loved reading and writing, but I particularly hated this task. I always thought “? this is so not fair, my code already has comments which explain what happens at every step. The user should be able to guess what the program does once the code is compiled and run so why should I write?!”

Many programmers I know think this way too, but here’s an interesting fact I realized recently: not everyone can fully exploit the full functionalities of software without guidance . No matter how intuitive the design may seem, not everyone who comes across the software will be able to enjoy it to the fullest without help. I myself have had to look online for how to perform certain tasks/operations using a software (strangely I didn’t realize I was actually reading documentation other people had made).

When I first began writing for LibreHealth, my work had so many flaws and I had to edit quite a number of times before finally getting it right. I’m so glad I had such patient mentors to help me. I met an amazing lady in the project chat forum, whose writing really inspires me ( ? I’ll ask her if I can share a link to her blog at some point).

So far, so good

I believe I have gotten much better at writing, I know I still have a lot to learn and I’m just so excited!

Check out this story and others on my blog . Thanks for reading!

If this article was helpful, share it .

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What is Outreachy Internship Program?

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Outreachy is a three-month-long internship program which is organized by the Software Freedom Conservancy for the people who are underrepresented in this specific field. It is a paid and remote internship, and it is conducted twice a year that is from May to August and December to March. In the Outreachy program, you will get to contribute to open source so if you are familiar to open source then this will increase your chances of getting shortlisted for the program. The amount paid as a stipend is around 7000 USD and the internship completely works from home but if you need to attend any event related to this program then the travel stipend of 500 USD is also available. The Outreachy Internship program is not only for programmers or developers, there are lots of opportunities in the Outreachy program for non-technical people too. This article will cover everything you need to know about the Outreachy program.

Eligibility

Let’s just start with the eligibility, Outreachy program is open for all, but they do follow some protocols. There are different eligibility criteria for different people which is discussed in depth in the following points. So following are the eligibility criteria for the Outreachy program :

• The minimum age of the applicant must be 18 at the time of applying for the program.
• The candidate must be available to spend 40 hours or more per week throughout the program.
• Candidates who were GSoC interns earlier are not eligible for Outreachy even if they have not completed their GSoC program successfully.
• Candidates who applied for a previous Outreachy program but got rejected can also apply.
• Candidates who have part-time jobs or contract-based jobs are eligible for the program but candidates having full-time jobs are not eligible.
• If the candidate is a university student then he or she can only apply for the first round if their university lies in Northern Hemisphere and if their university lies in Southern Hemisphere then they can only apply for the second round.
• If the university lie near the equator or the candidate is a final year student then he or she can apply for either of the two rounds.

The program is mainly for women, transgender, genderqueer, non-binary people, people of color, and people who faced discrimination because of caste or tribe. Men who faced discrimination in the industry can also apply for the program.

Application Process

The complete application process of the Outreachy program is divided into three parts :

• Initial Application Period: In the initial application period, there is mainly essay-type questions where they generally ask about your thoughts about diversity in work and present challenges. Apart from these essay questions, you will have to answer questions that will aim to test your dedication to the program, so you should answer in order to show that you are eager to learn and completely committed to the program.
• Contribution Period: The shortlisted candidates of the initial application enter the contribution period, as you can understand by its name this application period is mainly about making open source contributions. The final selection of candidates depends upon the quality of contribution they make during the contribution period. The candidates will get to interact with the mentors during the contribution period.
• Intern Selection Period: After the contribution period, the mentors analyze the work of the applicants and verify their project timeline according to their contributions and commitment and then the mentors give reports to Outreachy organizers that they want to select that specific candidate – the names of all the selected candidates are announced together.

Timeline for 2022 Edition

The timeline for the 2022 edition of the Outreachy internship program is mentioned below, go through it to understand the flow of the program, and then plan your strategy accordingly.

• 4th February 2022 – 4 PM UTC: Initial Applications Open for Interns
• 14th February 2022 – 4 PM UTC: #OutreachyChat on Twitter
• 2nd March 2022 – 4 PM UTC: Initial Application Deadline
• 30th March 2022: Project list Finalized
• 25th March – 22nd April 2022: Contribute to the projects
• 22nd April 2022 – 4 PM UTC: Deadline for the Final Application
• 20th May 2022 – 4 PM UTC: Names of selected interns will be announced
• 30th May 2022 – 26th August 2022: Internship Period

Advantages of Outreachy

• Boost Learning: The Outreachy program will boost your learning curve as you contribute and make changes to the Free and Open Source Software. You will learn more about new technologies and tools, and you will get to learn from your mentor too.
• Industry Experience: You will complete a project under a given deadline then you will get a taste of how things work in the industry and how a task is divided into small parts so that it could be achieved in a specific amount of time.
• Stipend: The program not only provides you knowledge and experience, but it also rewards you for your hard work, dedication, and commitment with a stipend of 7000 USD.
• Exposure & Practical Experience: If you are a college student then this program will give you great exposure and some practical experience which will later help you in placements or career endeavors.

Outreachy is an amazing internship program to go for as it has enormous benefits and if you want to know more about the Outreachy program’s flow – then you can refer to their official website.

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What kind of Experience do you want to share?

• Applicants Applicant Guide Internship Guide Apply to Outreachy My Application Current Projects Past Projects Other Opportunities
• Communities Community Guide Volunteering FAQ Community Sign-up Mentor Sign-up My Mentored Projects All Projects
• Interns Internship Guide My Internship Past Interns Opportunities
• Donors Sponsor Outreachy Individual Donations
• About Us Contact Us Promote Outreachy Blog

← back to Outreachy documentation

Outreachy Community Participation Guide

Table of contents.

• Outreachy roles
• Outreachy intern skill levels
• Outreachy intern demographics
• Applicant eligibility
• How is Outreachy different from other internship programs?
• Community types: open source projects
• Community types: open science projects
• Community types: non-profits
• Interns are not contractors
• Interns are not employees
• Funding requirements
• Licensing requirements
• Commercial ties
• Public work requirements
• Finding sponsors
• Community internship stipend credits
• Outreachy general fund: All intern funding
• Outreachy general fund: Additional intern funding
• How much does the Outreachy general fund sponsor?
• How do you decide who gets Outreachy general funding?
• Communities and projects sign up period
• Initial application period
• Contribution period
• Final application
• Intern selection period
• Internship period
• Community sign up process
• Mentor sign up process
• Deciding on a project
• Project description
• Number of projects
• Listing contribution period tasks
• Example contribution period tasks
• Small contribution period tasks
• Medium contribution period tasks
• Evaluating contribution period tasks
• Set office hours
• Find unofficial volunteers
• Limit simple contributions
• Have applicants complete similar tasks
• Encourage collaboration vs competition
• Close your project to new applicants
• Estimated number of interns

Week 1 and 2: Expectations for mentors

Week 5 and 6: expectations for mentors, 1. what is outreachy.

Outreachy is a paid, remote internship program. Outreachy's goal is to support people from groups underrepresented in tech. We help newcomers to free software and open source make their first contributions.

Outreachy provides internships to work open source. People apply from all around the world. Interns work remotely, and are not required to move. Interns are paid a stipend of $7,000 USD for the three month internship.

Interns work with experienced mentors from open source communities. Outreachy internship projects may include programming, user experience, documentation, illustration, graphical design, or data science. Interns often find employment after their internship with Outreachy sponsors or in jobs that use the skills they learned during their internship.

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1.1. Terms used

A FOSS community can be a small set of contributors that work together on one piece of software or one free culture project. A community can also be comprised of many different teams that each work on separate subsystems, modules, applications, libraries, tools, documentation, user experience, graphical design, and more.

Each team can submit one or more intern project proposals that their FOSS community will fund. Outreachy cannot accept intern project proposals that don't have an associated community.

1.2. Outreachy roles

There are several different Outreachy roles:

• Applicant: An Outreachy applicant is someone who wants to become an Outreachy intern. We don't use the term "student" for Outreachy applicants. We use gender-neutral language to refer to applicants. Outreachy is open to applicants of all gender identities who meet our eligibility criteria .
• Intern: An applicant who has been chosen by a mentor as an intern. An intern works with a mentor for three months during the internship period.
• Mentor: An Outreachy mentor is an experienced free and open source software contributor. A mentor defines an Outreachy project. Mentors work with applicants to help them complete contributions to the project during the contribution phase. Mentors select an applicant as the intern for their project. The mentor works one-on-one with the selected intern during the internship. Projects can have more than one mentor (co-mentors). Please read the mentor documentation.
• Coordinator: Each internship project must be associated with a free and open source software community participating in Outreachy. That community provides funding for interns, either directly from community funds, or by finding a company or foundation to sponsor interns. Each community has one or more coordinators, who review submitted projects, approve mentors, and generally provide a communication link between the mentors and Outreachy organizers. Some smaller communities have only one coordinator, who is also the only mentor. Please read the coordinator documentation.
• Outreachy organizers: There is a small set of organizers who oversee the entire Outreachy program. They review initial applications, find funding, onboard new communities, review intern selections, review internship feedback, answer questions, promote Outreachy, and work on the Outreachy website.
• Software Freedom Conservancy: Outreachy's fiscal sponsor is Software Freedom Conservancy. That means they handle finances for Outreachy. Conservancy staff will invoice Outreachy sponsors, collect tax and payment information from Outreachy interns, and issue internship stipends to the Outreachy interns.

A note on pronouns: The Outreachy website allows applicants, mentors, and coordinators to list their pronouns. Sometimes you may not know the gender identity of an Outreachy participant. In that case, please avoid using gender-specific language. In English, you should use gender neutral language (e.g. "person" instead of "woman" or "man"). You should use gender neutral pronouns ("they" instead of "he" or "she"). We ask that you avoid using gender-specific honorifics like "Mr", "Sir", "Mrs", "Miss", or "Ma'am". We recognize that languages other than English are heavily gendered. It may not be possible to use gender-neutral language in your native language, but we ask you to do so when communicating in English.

1.3. Outreachy intern skill levels

Outreachy interns come from a wide range of backgrounds. Interns could be university students, code school graduates, people switching careers, or people coming back to tech after starting a family or other long absence.

Outreachy interns can be people of any gender. If you do not know what a participant's pronouns are, please use gender-neutral language and they/them pronouns.

Many Outreachy applicants have not contributed to open source. Some applicants may have made small contributions, but not worked on a larger project. Other applicants may participate in open source events or groups but don't know how to make a contribution. Some applicants may be using open source. Others may have their first experience with using open source through Outreachy.

1.4. Outreachy intern demographics

Photo CC BY 2.0 WOCinTech Chat

Outreachy is open to applicants around the world.

We invite people to apply who face systemic bias or discrimination in the technology industry of their country.

Outreachy expressly invites applicants who are women (both cis and trans), trans men, non-binary people, and genderqueer people to apply.

We also expressly invite applications who are residents and nationals of the United States of America of any gender who are Black/African American, Hispanic/Latin@, Native American/American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander.

Past Outreachy interns are:

• 4% transgender, genderqueer, or non-binary people
• 64% people of color
• 12% people from a historically disadvantaged caste or tribe

Statistics are based on responses to the 2019 longitudinal study of Outreachy alums.

1.5. Applicant Eligibility

Outreachy applicants submit an initial application. Outreachy organizers use the initial application to determine whether the applicant is eligible for an Outreachy internship. Outreachy organizers also review the application essays to see if they align with our goal of supporting diversity in open source.

Mentors often want to know if an applicant they are interacting with is eligible to participate. Due to privacy concerns, we do not list the contact information of all applicants with accepted initial applications. However, only applicants with an accepted initial application can record a contribution through the Outreachy website. If you see an applicant has recorded a contribution to your project, their initial application has been accepted, and they should be eligible for Outreachy.

Rarely, we find applicants are not eligible for Outreachy after they have been selected for as an intern. This typically happens because they excluded information like school terms from their initial application, or because they accepted a full-time job after they filled out their initial application. In this case, we will contact mentors privately to ask them to pick another intern.

Eligibility Rules. These eligibility rules apply to the May 2024 to August 2024 Outreachy internships round. Dates may change for future rounds.

Outreachy is open to applicants around the world. You will need to meet the following requirements:

1. General eligibility

• You must be 18 years of age or older by May 27, 2024
• You must be available for a full-time internship. Outreachy interns work 30 hours per week. The internship runs from May 27, 2024 to Aug. 23, 2024.

2. Past internships

• You are welcome to apply to Outreachy multiple times. However, you can only be accepted as an Outreachy intern once.
• You must not be a past Outreachy intern.
• You must not be a past Outreach Program for Women intern.
• You must not be a past Google Summer of Code intern. All Google Summer of Code interns are ineligible for Outreachy. This includes people who did not successfully finish their Google Summer of Code internship.

3. Current or future internships

• The Outreachy internship runs from May 27, 2024 to Aug. 23, 2024.
• You must not have another internship during the Outreachy internship period. This includes unpaid internships.
• Applicants are required to list their current internships on their initial application. We understand you may be applying to many jobs. If you receive a job or internship offer, please notify Outreachy organizers immediately.

4. Rules for people with jobs

• You must not have a full-time job during the Outreachy internship.
• You must not have a full-time contracting position during the Outreachy internship period.
• You must not be on a leave of absence from a full-time job during the Outreachy internship.
• If you are willing to quit your full-time job, you are welcome to apply to Outreachy. If you cannot quit your full-time job, you are not eligible for Outreachy.
• If you have a part-time job, you are welcome to apply to Outreachy. Part-time jobs must be approved by Outreachy organizers.
• Applicants are required to list their current jobs on their initial application. We understand you may be applying to many jobs. If you receive a job or internship offer, please notify Outreachy organizers immediately.

5. Rules for people who are not students

• People who are not students are welcome to apply to Outreachy.
• Outreachy has two internship cohorts: May to August, and December to March. If you are not a student, you may apply to either internship cohort.

6. Rules for students

• Both students and people who are not students are welcome to apply to Outreachy.
• University students must have 42 consecutive days free from school and exams during the internship period.
• Students must apply to the correct internship cohort (see rules below).

Outreachy internships run twice a year, May to August and December to March. We have some rules around which internship round you can apply to:

• If you are a student of a university in the Northern Hemisphere , you will only be eligible for the May to August internship cohort. Students in India are considered to be in the northern hemisphere, regardless of where their university is located.
• If you are a student of a university in the Southern Hemisphere , you will only be eligible for the December to March internship cohort.
• Otherwise, if your university is near the equator, you may apply to any internship cohort. We will review university term schedules on a case-by-case basis.
• If you are completing your last term for your degree, you may be eligible for either internship cohort, regardless of what hemisphere you are in. To be eligible for the May 2024 internships, the exams for your last school term must end before July 8, 2024. If the school academic calendar continues past that date, graduating students are not eligible.
• When determining student eligibility, Outreachy looks at the school's academic calendar dates. We do not consider the individual student's course load. We do not consider special arrangements students have made with their university. Students who plan on taking a school term off to pursue an internship are not eligible for Outreachy. We cannot accept letters from universities about pausing classes or joining classes at a later date.

7. Rules for students on visas

• Your visa must allow you to work 30 hours per week. If you cannot work 30 hours per week, you are not eligible for Outreachy.
• If you are on a student visa in the United States of America, you might have limited dates when you can work 30 hours a week. We will work with you to shift your internship dates by up to five weeks. However, we cannot accommodate shortening the 13 week internship.
• If you are a student on an F-1 visa, you may need to apply for CPT with your university. Outreachy organizers can provide you documentation for your CPT application once you are selected as an intern.

1.6. How is Outreachy different from other internship programs?

2. community participation rules.

New communities must meet these rules to be eligible to participate in Outreachy. The Outreachy organizers and the Outreachy Project Leadership Committee (PLC) will review the community's application to ensure they meet our participation rules.

We encourage communities with at least 2-3 core contributors to participate. However, this is not a strict requirement.

Each section below will list guidelines for the types of communities that can participate in Outreachy.

2.1 Community types

Three types of communities can participate in Outreachy:

• open source communities
• open science communities
• non-profit organizations

2.1.1. Community types: open source project

Open source practices.

All open source communities that participate in Outreachy need to be focused on open, public work.

We welcome communities who implement any of the following open source practices:

• publicly available source code
• publicly available documentation
• open, public collaboration
• public review of work-in-progress
• public communication
• open governance
• community-driven feature roadmap
• open access
• open data sets
• open data science

If you are missing some of the above practices, please do submit an application to mentor! We understand that open source communities continually improve over time.

Outreachy is happy to work with you to improve your community's open source practices. Many communities find that participating in Outreachy helps them improve their practices, especially around improving their on-boarding documentation.

Some of our eligibility rules may be more flexible for smaller open source or open science communities.

Outreachy welcomes mentors from low-income and middle-income countries. We also welcome mentors from marginalized groups in the technology or science industry. Some of our community eligibility rules may be more flexible for communities built by less privileged groups.

We encourage your community to apply! Please apply even if you are unsure about our eligibility rules.

If you have questions about our eligibility rules, please contact Outreachy organizers.

Open source internship projects

Outreachy welcomes several different types of internship projects. Many of our projects are focused on programming. However, any type of open source or open science contribution is welcome. Internship projects can include user advocacy, research, data science, user experience, documentation, design, marketing, or event planning.

2.1.2 Community types: open science projects

Open science practices.

All open science communities that participate in Outreachy need to be focused on open, public work.

We welcome communities who implement any of the following open science practices:

• reproducible research
• open collaboration
• citizen science
• using or creating open source software

Open science internship projects

2.1.3. community types: non-profits, non-profit eligibility.

American non-profit 501(c)(3) charities and 501(c)(6) trade organizations can participate as Outreachy mentoring communities. Outreachy organizers will also consider charitable organizations in other countries.

There is no restriction on the size of the charitable organization that can participate in Outreachy.

Non-profit internship projects

Outreachy welcomes several different types of internship projects. Many of our projects are focused on programming. However, a programming focus is not required. Past internship projects with non-profits have included things like research, advocacy, documentation, design, marketing, or event planning.

2.2 Interns are not contractors

Outreachy internships are not a way to find a contractor to work on your project. Instead, the goal is to introduce open source best practices to Outreachy interns.

Outreachy internships are considered fellowships. The goal of the Outreachy internship is for interns to learn about working in open source. Outreachy mentors will adjust the project goals according to the intern's skills and interests. Outreachy mentors should not expect a particular goal to be accomplished by the Outreachy intern.

Outreachy is not a way to find a skill set that your community lacks. Mentors should be able to coach Outreachy interns on the skills they use in the project. For example, if a community wants an Outreachy intern work on a JavaScript project, they need at least one mentor experienced in JavaScript. If the community could not find a mentor experienced in JavaScript, the project should not participate in Outreachy.

2.3 Interns are not employees

Outreachy interns are not employees of any Outreachy sponsor.

Outreachy cannot "place" interns in for-profit companies. Outreachy interns work directly with mentors from open source communities. They do not work for companies.

Outreachy interns are not employees of the open source communities.

Outreachy interns are self-employed contractors. They work under contract with Outreachy's parent non-profit organization, Software Freedom Conservancy. Conservancy is an American 501c3 charitable organization. Conservancy handles Outreachy intern contracts, tax paperwork, and internship stipend payment.

2.4 Funding requirements

All communities must find finding for at least one intern ($8,000 USD):

• Humanitarian open source communities can apply for funding from Outreachy
• Open science communities can apply for funding from Outreachy
• Other open source communities need to find their own funding. Communities might use their own community funds, or find a company to sponsor an intern.

All types of open source communities can apply to receive additional funding for interns . However, funding for at least one intern must be secured first.

2.5 Licensing requirements

Outreachy internship projects must be released under either an OSI-approved open source license that is also identified by the FSF as a free software license , OR a Creative Commons license approved for free cultural works .

Outreachy internship projects must forward the interests of free and open source software, not proprietary software.

Please make sure to read through the mentor FAQ for tips on what makes a good project .

2.6 Commercial ties

Free and open source communities that participate in Outreachy must forward free and open source software in public interest.

While we encourage companies to provide internship opportunities to people from underrepresented groups, the program cannot be used for internal company internships.

Participating free software communities can't be too tightly tied to any one company. Experienced community contributors should be employed by multiple organizations or be volunteers. The community resources should not advertise services of only just one company related to the software the community produces. Community governance should include multiple companies or volunteers.

There should be no difference in functionality between the free and paid versions of the open source project. Outreachy does not allow open source projects which use a non-FSF approved license to restrict the rights of users of the free version of the project.

We do allow communities that provide paid hosting services. However, pricing pages should put the free community-hosted version at the same prominence as commercial hosting prices.

2.7 Public work requirements

All work done by Outreachy interns should be public. While interns may communicate with their mentors privately, mentors should encourage interns to communicate on public community channels as much as possible.

Community communication channels (chats or forums) should be public. It is fine for community chat channels to be invite-only in order to discourage spammers.

3. Intern Funding

Funding for interns may come from a number of different sources. Communities are welcome to apply to participate if their sponsorship is not confirmed yet. Sponsorship information can be updated at any time until the intern selection deadline.

3.1 Finding sponsors

FOSS communities often fund Outreachy interns directly from their own community funds, or by using funds from the foundation or non-profit who is their fiscal sponsor.

Many FOSS communities find funding from corporate sponsors who use their FOSS project.

3.2 Community internship stipend credits

Some Outreachy communities may have a full or partial internship stipend credit. A credit usually occurs when a community has arranged for a company to sponsor them, the company has paid the sponsorship invoice, but the community ends up accepting less interns than the amount the company sponsored. In rare cases, a community may have a partial internship credit when an internship is terminated, and either the midpoint or final internship stipend was not paid.

Community internship credits are valid for two years from the time the credit was recorded. It can be used towards interns sponsorship in future Outreachy internship rounds. If a community does not use the credit within two years, the credit revert to the Outreachy general fund.

3.3 Outreachy General fund

Communities can apply to the Outreachy general fund to sponsor interns. There are two ways to apply for Outreachy general funding:

• Fully funding all interns from the Outreachy general fund
• Funding some interns from the Outreachy general fund

Humanitarian open source communities are eligible for interns to be fully funded by the Outreachy general fund.

Open science communities are eligible for interns to be fully funded by the Outreachy general fund.

Other communities must secure their own funding for at least one intern ($8,000 USD). After that external funding is secured, they can apply for additional interns to be funded by the Outreachy general fund.

3.3.1 Outreachy general fund: All intern funding

Open science and humanitarian open source communities are invited to apply to the Outreachy general fund when first signing up to participate in Outreachy. If your community is approved, Outreachy will fully fund at least one intern.

Communities that are not humanitarian focused and not focused on open science are not eligible for this option.

3.3.2 Humanitarian funding: All intern funding

To be eligible for intern funding, a humanitarian open source community must be:

• open source : your project's source code and creative works must be published under an open source license
• humanitarian focused : your project should tackle a humanitarian issue
• community : your project should have at least 2-3 people who make regular open source contributions to your project

3.3.3 Open Science funding: All intern funding

Chan zuckerberg initiative funding.

Outreachy is pleased to work with Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to provide funding for open science interns. Please see our guidelines for open science communities .

3.3.4 Outreachy general fund: Additional intern funding

As explained in the sections above, communities must find their own funding, or apply for funding from the Outreachy general fund. Once funding for one intern is secured, communities will be approved to participate in Outreachy.

During the intern selection process, some communities may find they have more strong applicants than they have funding for. In that case, communities can apply to the Outreachy general fund for additional intern funding.

All types of open source communities (humanitarian, open science, and other types) are welcome to apply for additional intern funding.

During the intern selection process, communities can request additional interns be sponsored by the Outreachy general fund. Communities can request that an intern be funded by the Outreachy general fund through the Outreachy website. When a mentor selects an intern, the community coordinator can set the funding source to the Outreachy general fund.

After the intern selection deadline, Outreachy will review general funding requests across all communities. We will determine which ones we have budget to sponsor. Decisions will be communicated before the intern announcement date.

3.3.5 How much does the Outreachy general fund sponsor?

The sponsorship for each Outreachy intern is $8,000 USD.

The Outreachy general fund typically sponsors 10 to 30 interns per cohort. The Outreachy general fund usually sponsors 1 intern per community, but it has occasionally sponsored up to 5 interns per community.

3.3.6 How do you decide who gets Outreachy general funding?

The Outreachy organizers review Outreachy general funding requests after the intern selection deadline. We review Outreachy general funding requests across all communities. Then we apply our criteria to determine which communities get funding.

Intern free time We first look at the amount of time each intern has free. We review the time commitments the intern put in their initial application. We review the intern's final application to ensure they do not have new time commitments.

If an intern has close to the minimum required free time during the internship period, we look at the quality of their contributions. If an intern has not a lot of free time and has made lower quality contributions, they are not a good fit to be accepted. If an intern has not a lot of free time, but has higher quality and complex contributions, they can be accepted as an intern.

Contribution quality Second, we look at the quality of the contributions made by the intern.

If the intern has made simple contributions, it's unclear whether they have the skills to be successful during the internship. We may ask the mentor how they have evaluated the intern's skills.

Interns who are rated 1 ("Struggling - applicant did not understand instructions or feedback") or 2 ("Inexperienced - smaller contributions that vary in quality") are not good candidates for Outreachy general funding.

If the mentor has rated the intern as a 3 or lower ("Good - some smaller contributions of good quality"), we may have a discussion with the mentor about their evaluation of the intern's skills.

Interns who are rated 4 ("Strong - at least one large, high-quality contribution") or 5 ("Amazing - multiple large, high-quality contributions") will be prioritized for Outreachy general funding.

Alternative sponsors Outreachy needs to carefully allocate its funding. If a community already has a sponsor that is a for-profit company or a 501c6 (non-profit trade organization), we may reach out to that sponsor to see if they can fund additional interns.

4. Outreachy schedule

Outreachy internships run twice a year.

4.1 General timeline

Here is our general schedule for each year:

4.2 Current internship round schedule

May 2024 to August 2024 Outreachy internships round schedule

4.3 Timeline details

Community CFP period:

• Jan. 7, 2024 to March 1, 2024
• Community coordinators find sponsors to fund interns
• Communities sign up to participate
• Outreachy organizers review new communities who want to participate
• Community coordinators reach out to potential mentors
• Mentors submit projects for interns to work on
• Coordinators review projects and approve or reject them
• Mentors create a list of tasks for applicants to work on during the contribution period

Initial application period:

• Jan. 15, 2024 to Jan. 29, 2024
• During this period, applicants fill out an initial application form
• Outreachy organizers review initial applications and their essays
• Initial applications are due on Jan. 29, 2024
• All accepted applicants will receive an email when the contribution period starts on March 4, 2024
• Everyone will be able to view their initial application status on eligibility results page on March 4, 2024 at 4pm UTC

Contribution period:

• March 4, 2024 to April 2, 2024
• Applicants with an approved initial application will move onto the contribution period
• During this period, applicants contact mentors and make contributions
• Mentors communicate with applicants and tell them about community norms
• Mentors help applicants set up their contribution environment
• Mentors review applicant contributions and suggest changes
• Applicants are required to record a contribution
• Applicants are required to fill out a final application
• Contributions and final applications are due on April 2, 2024

Intern selection period:

• April 2, 2024 to May 2, 2024
• Mentors select their chosen intern(s) through the Outreachy website
• Coordinators review the intern selections
• Outreachy organizers review Outreachy general funding requests
• Outreachy organizers approve the intern selections
• Applicants may (but are not required to) continue working on contribution period tasks
• Intern selections are not shared with applicants until interns are announced on May 2, 2024

5. Community sign up process

The first step for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) communities who want to participate Outreachy is to fill out a community participation application. Outreachy organizers and the Outreachy Project Leadership Committee will review your community participation application.

Community coordinators will receive an email once their community is approved to participate in this internship round.

Once the community coordinator has applied to participate, they can send their community's CFP page link to mentors.

6. Mentor sign up process

Mentors must submit their project descriptions through the Outreachy website. Co-mentors can sign up once the project has been submitted. Coordinators will approve the projects and any co-mentors.

Mentors should sign up on the Outreachy website, since that grants them special permissions. Mentors who sign up will be can be subscribed to the mentors mailing list, which the Outreachy organizers use to send important announcements. Mentors will be granted read access to applications for their project and will be notified of new applicants.

7. Internship project guidelines

Outreachy mentors define a project for interns to work on during the three month internship. This is called the "internship project".

7.1 Deciding on a project

What makes a good Outreachy internship project? (Credit to QEMU coordinator Stefan Hajnoczi's talk at KVM Forum for these tips.) A project that is suitable for interns to work on is:

• Well-defined - The project has a well defined scope.
• Self-contained - Has few dependencies on uncompleted work. Does not require interacting with multiple open source communities who are not on-board with interacting with an Outreachy intern.
• Uncontroversial - The community should agree that this project idea is acceptable (and ideally useful!) to be included in the community project.
• Incremental - The project should produce several deliverables during the internship period, rather than having only one large deliverable. This allows the project goals to be modified if the intern completes task faster or slower than expected. If the project does have one large deliverable, it's recommended that the intern complete a design document. This allows the intern to hand off unfinished work to the next intern, or the community.

Only Outreachy mentors should propose internship projects. Outreachy does not accept projects proposed by an applicant. Outreachy mentors are allowed to tailor a project to the applicant after selecting them as an intern. But novel or new projects should not be proposed by applicants.

Outreachy does not allow mentors to submit a project with a particular applicant in mind. All project mentors should be willing to work with any applicant during the contribution phase. This allows all Outreachy applicants a fair chance at obtaining an internship based on their skills, rather than existing connections to a free software community.

7.2 Project description

Each Outreachy mentor will need to submit their project description to the Outreachy website. Projects can be submitted by selecting a participating community on the Community CFP page .

You can download an example project description , which includes screenshots of the forms used to create that project description.

7.3 Number of projects

Each Outreachy open source / open science community will have a set amount of interns it can fund. However, communities can apply for additional intern funding from the Outreachy general fund. Also, communities may find that one internship project is more popular than another.

Therefore, it is encouraged for open source / open science communities to list more projects than they have internship funding (or mentors) for. For example, communities that intend to accept 1-2 interns often list 3-5 projects.

8. Contribution period tasks

Outreachy mentors need to define a set of newcomer-friendly tasks (called "contribution period tasks"). Applicants will work on these tasks during the contribution period. The contribution period tasks for applicants are different than the work the intern will complete during the internship.

The goal of contribution period tasks is for mentors to determine whether the applicant has the skills to be successful during the internship. Working on contribution period tasks also help applicants get familiar with the mentor and the open source / open science community norms.

In order to be accepted as an intern, applicants need to complete at least one contribution period task.

Popular Outreachy projects can have 100+ applicants all trying to complete contribution period tasks at once. Mentors can quickly become overwhelmed unless they prepare their contribution period task list ahead of time.

Therefore, it is very important for mentors to prepare a well-detailed list of contribution period tasks

You should have around 10-20 small contribution period tasks, and 5-10 medium-sized contribution period tasks.

You should expect that most applicants will complete 1 or 2 contribution period tasks. Applicants who are selected as interns usually complete 4 tasks on average. Some interns have completed as many as 13 tasks during the application process.

8.1 Listing contribution period tasks

There are many places to list contribution period tasks for Outreachy applicants to work on.

• open source / open science community issue tracker
• welcome page on the open source / open science community website or wiki
• shared online document
• kanban board (useful to assign contribution period tasks and sort tasks into categories)

Most open source / open science communities try to tag issues that are designed for newcomers. A 'tag' is a label that links to issues under the same topic. Tagging a group of issues specifically for Outreachy applicants (or all newcomers) ensures they won't try working on an issue that is too complex or not well defined.

Here are some recommended tags for labeling contribution period tasks for Outreachy applicants:

• "newcomer friendly"
• "good first task", "good first issue", or "good first bug"
• "Outreachy"

It is best to define who the issue is aimed at ("newcomer" or someone working on their "first issue"). Avoid using the word "newbie" because it is often used in a negative manner (e.g. "n00b"). Additionally, the word "newbie" can be offensive for people who are not new to tech, but are new to open source. Using the word "newcomer" is more appropriate because it means someone is new to your project.

8.2 Example contribution period tasks

Contribution period tasks should test the skills the applicants will use during their internship. Therefore, contribution period tasks for applicants will vary greatly from project to project. Here are some examples, depending on the type of internship project:

• Testing: write a test case that reproduces a bug
• Programming: update one function to use a newer API, or refactor some code
• Documentation: identify a missing section of documentation and outline what should be in that section
• Translation: translate one paragraph of documentation from English to your native language
• Design: design an example illustration for the open source / open science community website
• Accessibility: identify one accessibility bug using Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 standard levels
• User research: introduce the open source software to a friend, and record their impressions and challenges while trying to complete a task

A contribution period task does not have result in code being merged into the project. For example, a user experience contribution period task could ask the applicant to use the open source software and write a short report on an aspect of the user interface that was confusing. That report could be uploaded to a file sharing service and shared with Outreachy mentors. The applicant could link to the shared report when recording their contribution on the Outreachy website.

Here are some example lists of newcomer-friendly contribution period tasks:

• Public Lab newcomer welcome page
• Zulip contribution period tasks for GSoC and Outreachy applicants
• Wikimedia contribution period task description
• Oppia pinned a GitHub issue for newcomers and created a GitHub wiki page for onboarding newcomers
• QEMU newcomer issues

8.3 Small contribution period tasks

A small contribution period task is designed to introduce the applicant to your project. The goal is not the task itself, but to encourage the applicant to familiarize themself with the community norms, development processes, and asking questions.

For example, a good small contribution period task might be to install a local development environment, change some part of the user interface, and then add a screenshot of the changes to an open issue for Outreachy applicants. This will see whether the applicant can debug getting their development environment set up. They will likely get stuck, and need to reach out to ask for help. Mentors can see how the applicant asks questions, and responds to feedback. Contribution period tasks should be defined so that mentors can see how the applicant asks for help and their communication style.

Smaller contribution period tasks will often need a very thorough description. They will often have several paragraphs to explain why the task needs to be done, how to complete the task, and what resources the applicant should read.

Some applicants may "claim" a smaller task and then not complete it. You may want to limit the number of tasks one applicant can claim.

It's good to have a lot of smaller tasks. You can also have smaller starter tasks that can be completed by multiple applicants (like a user experience survey or a graphic design proposal).

8.4 Medium contribution period tasks

Once an applicant has completed a few smaller tasks, they'll want to have a medium-sized task. This task is a chance for them to prove they have the skills needed for your project.

A medium-sized task should test the skills that are necessary for an intern to be successful on this internship project. This is because Outreachy does not allow mentors to select an intern on the basis of educational background. Mentors should consider all applicants, regardless of whether they have a university degree, they have completed a coding school, or they are completely self-taught. You will be selecting an intern based on the quality of their contribution period tasks alone. In order to ensure you select an applicant who can successfully complete the internship, your tasks will need to test any skills you consider relevant to the internship project.

8.5 Evaluating contribution period tasks

A strong applicant submits thoughtful contribution period tasks, and edits their work when feedback is given.

We encourage mentors to value communication first. Outreachy's goal is to help interns learn and grow their open source skills. Growth cannot happen without communication and collaboration. We encourage mentors to value applicants who communicate during the contribution period.

We encourage mentors to value the quality of the applicant's contribution period tasks, over the number of contribution period tasks that an applicant completes. It is risky to accept an applicant who submits many small contributions with little substance. These small contributions may not be enough to judge whether the applicant will be successful during the internship.

It is also risky to accept an applicant who submits a large contribution at the last minute. This does not allow mentors enough time to judge the applicant's skills. It also does not allow the applicant time to respond to feedback.

9. Avoiding mentor burnout during the contribution period

The contribution period is often very busy and stressful for mentors. They will have around 10-15 applicants asking questions and working on tasks. It's often hard to keep track of who is working on what. You may be overwhelmed by the number of emails, chat notifications, or repository issue notifications.

Communities that have participated in Outreachy in the past have some guidance to share on how to lower stress for mentors:

9.1 Set office hours

Outreachy is open to anyone around the world. Unfortunately, that means you can get questions and contributions at any time of the day (or night!). It's important that mentors protect their personal time to unwind and do self-care. In your project description, mention what times you are best available to answer questions. Try to set aside at least one hour per week day to answer questions.

The downside to this is that some applicants will not be able to get their questions answered during their normal working hours. You may find that some applicants even shift their work or sleep schedule to be available during your office hours. This can be added emotional labor for parents with children, or people who are currently working and trying to switch careers into tech.

On the other hand, you will need to set up regular check-in times with your intern. So being up front about when you are available to help will narrow the applicants down to ones that have a window to work with you. Some mentors have been able to make working with an applicant with a 12 hour timezone difference, and some mentors have struggled. You know yourself and your work habits. Make the best call for you, while still being open to working with Outreachy interns in many different timezones and countries.

9.2 Find unofficial volunteers

You can ask experienced contributors to your community to be "unofficial" volunteers. These volunteers could be past Outreachy or Google Summer of Code interns with your community, or other community members. They don't have to be official mentors, but they can help answer questions.

Unofficial volunteers can help people set up contribution environment and tools. They can help with common contribution tools, like git or other revision control software. Unofficial volunteers can also provide experience with community norms. Community norms could be something technical like what coding style to use. Community norms can also involve communication style, like how to effectively ask for help.

Unofficial volunteers can also serve as a connector to other community members or external open source contributors. They can help introduce applicants to people who works on specific parts of the project, or external open source contributors who are experts with a particular tool (like git).

9.3 Limit simple contributions

A simpler contribution could be something like fixing a spelling error in the documentation. A more complex contribution could be something like refactoring code, writing a documentation section, or doing research. Applicants have a tendency to make a lot of simpler contributions. They may feel confident making smaller changes, but less confident tackling medium complexity tasks.

You can limit the number of simpler contributions that each applicant can complete. Keep track of how many simple contributions applicants have claimed to work on. If an applicant has worked on or wants to claim a third or fourth simple contribution, encourage them to pick up a medium sized or more complex task.

Some communities have queues of simple, medium complexity, and highly complex tasks. Once an applicant completes 1-3 simple tasks, you can point them to the medium complexity task queue.

9.4 Withhold some contribution period tasks

You may want to save some smaller tasks for the last few weeks of the application period. Save those tasks and don't put them in your task tracker until the last two weeks. This allows applicants who come in later in the application period to have a chance at completing a smaller starter task.

It's important that mentors remain responsive to applicants who are completing tasks during this period. Mentors can be honest with the applicant if they already have an intern selection in mind (and that applicant has completed a final application). However, mentors shouldn't ignore requests for help or requests for a starter task, as this leads to a bad experience for the applicants.

9.5 Have applicants complete similar tasks

You can ask all applicants complete the same tasks. This task could be something like taking a screen shot showing which shows they got the contribution environment working and made a change to your project. They could also work on a document, like a review of the usability of your project or a design document for a feature they would be working on during the project.

The upside of having applicants work on the same tasks is they can all commenting on the same GitHub issue, which allows you to keep the conversation in one place.

The downside of having applicants work on the same tasks is that some people might be intimidated by the other applicants' work. It may also encourage applicants to copy other applicants' work. If you ask applicants to complete the same task, be sure to have some other individualized tasks that test the applicants' skills.

9.6 Encourage collaboration vs competition

Open source is about collaborating with others in a community. It's important to encourage that collaborative mindset in your applicants. Otherwise they may be focused on a more competitive mindset, focusing only on how they can improve their changes of being accepted as an intern.

You can encourage applicants to help each other. Encourage them to engage with applicants or newcomers to the community who ask questions. Keep a shared document of common questions and answers that any applicant can add to. Once an applicant has completed a medium complexity task, encourage them to start reviewing other applicants' contributions.

The upside of encouraging applicants to collaborate is you may lessen the workload for mentors.

There are several downsides, however. One is that applicants with impostor syndrome may feel shy about sharing answers to questions, even if they know the correct answer. Second, some interns may live in countries where they are taught to defer to teachers or people in authority. Answering a question that is directed at experienced developers may seem taboo or breaking a cultural norm.

Additionally, gender bias may come into play when you're looking for interns that collaborate with each other. Women and non-binary people who were assigned female at birth (AFAB) are often socially conditioned to not speak up unless they are extremely confident in their answer. You may find that men and non-binary people who were raised with masculine cultural norms are more likely to speak up and answer questions. Gender bias and gendered social norms should be considered when making intern selections.

9.7 Close your project to new applicants

Often times, Outreachy applicants will wait until the last week or two of the contribution period to start making contributions. Sometimes this results in them finding a project that has few applicants. Sometimes this means they try to make contributions to a project where many people have already made a contribution. It's important to encourage applicants who are seeking a project to contribute to projects with few applicants.

If you're overwhelmed with applicants who are already finished with contributions, you can close your project to new applicants. This simply moves your project listing on the projects page to a section called "Closed to new applicants". Current applicants will still be able to record contributions and submit a final application.

You can close your project to new applicants by finding that button on your dashboard .

It's a difficult decision as to when to close your project to new applicants. You may have many applicants who have completed a simple task, but you're not sure if any of them have the skills to succeed in the internship yet. You may want to wait to close your project to new applicants until at least one or two applicants have completed a medium-complexity task.

Don't wait too long to close your project to new applicants! Waiting too long means that applicants will apply to a project they have no chance of being accepted for.

10. Estimated number of interns

On the project list , each community has an estimate of the number of interns it expects to accept. The estimated number of interns is the total number of interns that will be accepted for the whole community. It is not the number of interns per project.

The estimated number of interns is based on the amount of sponsorship for the community and the number of mentors a community has.

The number of interns per community is an estimate, not a hard-and-fast rule. It may increase or decrease during the intern selection period. The reasons for changing are community-specific.

Communities accepting more interns

Some communities will accept more interns than they estimated. This typically means the community has found more funding to pay intern stipends, and has enough mentors to support additional interns.

Some times communities find additional sponsors, or they ask current sponsors for more money. Other times communities request funding from the Outreachy general fund.

Communities accepting less interns

Some communities may accept less interns than they expected. Some communities may accept no interns at all.

Some times communities accept less interns because of a change in mentor free time. Mentors may decide they do not have enough free time during the internship. This could be because of personal reasons, like burn out, a medical condition, or a death in the family. Or mentors could find they simply over-estimated the amount of free time they have.

Some times project mentors evaluated the contributions and decided not to accept any applicants.

11. Internship

Mentors and coordinators are encouraged to read the Internship Guide . The Internship Guide includes mentor duties and expectations during the internship. Mentors should familiarize themselves with the internship chat and blogging schedules.

Clearing up doubts.

Answer intern questions: Mentors should answer questions sent via email or private message. Mentors should encourage interns to ask questions on the public community chat, forum, or mailing lists. However, they should not refuse to answer questions sent privately.

Office hours: Mentors should set up a time each day when they can answer intern questions via chat. Ideally there will be at least 1 hour overlap between mentor working hours and intern working hours.

Tracking progress.

Weekly meeting: Mentors should schedule a weekly phone or video chat with their intern.

Daily stand-up: Outreachy organizers highly encourage mentors to set up a daily stand-up, either via phone or real-time chat. A daily stand-up allows you to track the intern's progress and ask if they are facing any blockers.

Intern blog: Mentors should be aware of where their intern blog is located. Interns are required to blog every two weeks. Mentors should read, comment, and share those blog posts with the wider community or on social media.

Giving acknowledgment and praise.

Acknowledgment of effort: Mentors should acknowledge the effort and hard work the intern put in during the contribution period.

Positive feedback: Mentors should give positive feedback about the intern's efforts to ramp up on their project.

Giving feedback.

Communication skills: If necessary, mentors should give the intern feedback on how they can communicate more clearly.

Team work skills: Interns are likely to be new to working publicly in an open source community. Mentors should give the intern feedback on how to effectively ask questions in the community's chat, forum, or mailing lists. Mentors should coach the intern how the community collaborates and works together as a team. Mentors should explain how to submit contributions and any contribution style requirements.

Contribution skills: Mentors may need to coach interns on how to create drafts of their work and share them with the community. This will help the intern gather feedback on their approach or design before putting too much time into the implementation.

Critical thinking skills: While the intern is ramping up on their project, mentors may have to provide more coaching to the intern to help them solve problems. Mentors should provide links to resources, as well as pointing out which section of the resources to read. Mentors should encourage the intern to create a list of resources, and consult those resources when they run into issues.

Teaching about open source.

Onboarding documents: Mentors should coach the intern on how to interact with the community, which chat channels to use, where to ask for help. Ideally these community norms would be documented. Mentors may need to create the documentation if it doesn't exist, or work with their intern to create documentation.

Community vocabulary: Mentors should watch for community-specific terms, acronyms, or jargon. Mentors should explain those community-specific terms to their interns.

Creating networking opportunities.

Community roles: Mentors should go over the community members or teams. Explain the different roles and which community members work on what part of the project. If your community is large, explain your immediate team or subsystem now. Then explain the larger community structure later in the internship.

Community networking: Mentors should announce the internship to their open source community. If their open source community is very small (e.g. 3-5 people), Outreachy organizers encourage mentors to announce the internship to related open source communities or related STEM communities. Congratulate the intern on their internship, and explain what project the intern will be working. If the internship project scope has changed, discuss the changed scope with your intern before announcing the project change to the community.

Technical industry networking: Ask your intern whether they would like to be tagged on any social media posts. Some interns prefer to not have their social media usernames mentioned in mentor posts. Once you have obtained consent, mentors are encouraged to announce the intern and their project on social media.

Encouraging career development.

Intern skills goals: Mentors should discuss what type of work the intern has enjoyed in the past, and what type of work or challenges they would like to tackle during the internship. Mentors should ask what skills the intern would like to learn during the internship.

Intern career goals: Mentors should discuss with their intern what their career goals are. If the intern does not know what career they want to pursue, the mentor can discuss the different career options they know of.

Project modification: If possible, mentors may want to modify the project goals to better align with skills the intern wants to learn, the type of work they want to do, what challenges they want to tackle, and their career goals.

Answer intern questions: Mentors should continue to answer questions from interns. We expect that the frequency of the questions will decrease, but the complexity of the questions will increase. Mentors should encourage interns to ask more of their questions on public community chat, forum, or mailing lists. However, they should not refuse to answer questions sent privately.

Office hours: Mentors should still have a scheduled time each day when they can answer intern questions via chat.

Weekly meeting: Mentors and interns should continue their weekly phone or video chats. These weekly meetings will likely cover more complex topics. Mentors may notice their intern talking more during these weekly meetings, as they gain more experience on their project.

Daily stand-up: Mentors and interns should continue their daily stand ups. Mentors may notice the daily stand ups become shorter, as interns raise questions, issues, and barriers to their work more frequently outside of stand up.

Intern blog: Mentors should work with their intern on their blog post that explains their project to a newcomer. If mentors have not yet, the blog post is a great excuse to introduce your intern to the wider open source community, or promote your intern on social media.

Acknowledgment of effort: Mentors should acknowledge how much the intern's skills have improved since the beginning of the internship. Mentors should praise the effort and hard work the intern put into their project.

Positive feedback: Mentors should give concrete positive feedback about the intern's contributions. Saying "thank you" is great, but saying "Thank you for this contribution, I really appreciate how much time you put into refactoring it" is better. Tell your intern how their contributions will positively impact your open source community, the people who use your open source project, or the world.

Communication skills: If interns are hesitant to participate in the public community chat, mentors should talk through their fears and encourage them. Mentors should encourage interns to communicate more on public open source community forums.

Team work skills: Mentors should encourage interns to submit draft contributions for review, rather than trying to get everything perfect. Mentors should coach interns on how to revise their contributions based on feedback. Mentors may still have to step in during architectural or design discussions to advocate for the intern.

Contribution skills: Mentors should continue to coach interns on improving their project skills. Mentors are encouraged to share advanced resources and tools. Some interns may find advanced tools on their own, and share them with mentors.

Critical thinking skills: Interns should be more independent about debugging issues on their own before asking for help. However, mentors and interns are still likely to have pair programming or pair debugging sessions to work through complex issues.

Design discussions: Mentors should encourage interns to have design discussions with community members. It's important to teach interns that the open source community rarely has "the right answer" for very complex design questions. Empower your intern to research their own solutions, and present them to your open source community. Mentors may still need to step in to help their interns articulate their solutions in these discussions.

Open source conferences: Mentors should talk to their interns about free software or open source conferences they might want to attend.

Community networking: Mentors should encourage interns to communicate on public open source community chat, forums, and mailing lists. Mentors are encouraged to personally introduce their intern to community members are knowledgeable about particular topics. A personal introduction makes it more likely that community members will answer your intern's questions, coach them on skills, or give them career advice.

Promotion: Mentors should read and discuss the intern's blog posts with the intern. Mentors should promote the blog posts to their open source community and on social media. Mentors should praise and promote their intern's contributions, both to their open source community and on social media.

Intern skills goals: Mentors and interns should have a check-in about what skills the intern wanted to learn during this internship. Check to see if the contributions the intern is working on will meet those goals. If not, you may want to consider modifying the project goals.

Intern career goals: Mentors and interns should have a check-in about whether the internship is helping with the intern's career goals. Check to see if the intern wants to pursue more networking, and if so, introduce them to more people who may help them meet their career goals.

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