I applied to Outreachy after seeing a tweet from Anjana Vakil; an Outreachy alum. My main motivation was these words: _ “APPLY! Even if you don’t get in, you’ll get your 1st contribution under your belt!” _. This was because I was looking for ways I could build and develop my skills. This is my second week as an Outreachy Intern with Creative Commons working on “Extend the scope and/or usage of CC Vocabulary” project and am pleased to share my journey.
Outreachy! Outreachy!! Outreachy!!!, What is Outreachy?
Outreachy simply put is a program that provides three months paid internships in the Free and Open Software community. Outreachy internships are not limited to programming, it stretches to design, research, documentation, data science, project marketing, etc. Outreachy provides you the opportunity to improve your skills working on real-world products used by people around the world.
The Application Process
The application process for Outreachy is in three phases:
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Initial Application: this starts your application and confirms your eligibility for the next phase. It requires some details about the applicant. The key here is to start your initial application early as soon as the applications are open so you can complete it in time.
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Contribution Phase: Here you have to select a project from a long list of projects from the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) communities and contribute to it. This can be overwhelming but what I did was to select the projects I would love to challenge myself with and matched my skill set. Aside from matching my skill set, another reason I chose Creative Commons was because her mentors were welcoming and ready to get me through the process.
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Final Application: Even after making great contributions to your selected projects, you need to submit a final application to be considered. Your final application should include a little more information about you, contributions made to your selected project and an outlined plan you will stick to during and after the internship if accepted. Most applicants forget this is also important, well I did not.
After the Application Process and Acceptance.
After the application process, I continued contributing. My aim here was to learn and challenge myself, I did not know I was going to be accepted but I am happy I got in.
Thank you Outreachy and the team at Creative Commons for this opportunity. Special thanks to my mentors Dhruv Bhanushali and Hugo Solar and Creative Commons Outreachy coordinator; Kriti Godey for their support through my application process. Also congratulations to my fellow interns. I can not wait to read about your experiences.
Well that said, I have got my first task to complete; see you in two weeks.