Outreachy Progress 2019-09

Summary of organizer work this month:

  • Reviewed 1,085 initial applications
  • Herded mentors and coordinators through submitting 81 projects
  • Wrote a blog post introducing projects by topic and programming language
  • Promoted Outreachy at the Tapia conference

December 2019 application status

Statistics for the December 2019 application period:

  • 1,774 applicants applied
  • 611 applicants were accepted to participate in the contribution period
  • 23 communities are participating in this round
  • 81 projects are listed, with communities having funding for 53 interns

Changes to Application Process

Moving the initial application submission to before the contribution period has been good from an Outreachy organizer perspective. We are able to follow up with applicants in an orderly fashion, and there’s less panicked emails from applicants who haven’t been approved.

From a mentor perspective, some mentors have been concerned about the increased communication from applicants. Many projects have 10-15 applicants who are all trying to talk with mentors at once. Mentors want applicants to apply some problem-solving skills to answer questions using supplied resources.

However, the Outreachy organizers have encouraged applicants to communicate more this round. We want to ensure that people with impostor syndrome are encouraged to reach out when they’re stuck.

It will be an on-going balance between mentor needs and encouraging applicants. Every small change we make to our welcome emails and applicant guide encourages different behavior.

Tapia Conference

Sage Sharp attended the Tapia conference to promote Outreachy to Computer Science students. Outreachy supports Tapia because the conference’s focus is on racial diversity and supporting students with disabilities.

Two Outreachy alums, Branden Bonaby and Joannah Nanjekye were sponsored by Outreachy to attend Tapia. They both helped Sage promote Outreachy in the booth.

Branden had recently completed his Outreachy internship, and he found a lot of companies at Tapia were interested in interviewing him because of his experience with the Linux kernel community.

Sage conducted video interviews with Branden and Joannah. The videos were posted on Twitter before the initial application closed to encourage more applicants to submit their application.

Outreachy booth at Tapia 2019
Outreachy booth at Tapia. CC-BY 4.0 Sage Sharp

The Outreachy booth was a success! We had 124 people sign up for the Outreachy mailing list. Sage spoke at the open source BoF panel, and then raffled off two copies of “Forge Your Future with Open Source”.

Book raffle winners
Winners of the “Forge Your Future with Open Source” book raffle. CC-BY 4.0 Sage Sharp