Hello everyone,

This message is a reminder for folks who might be interested in mentoring a project as part of the Outreachy program. Now would be the time to express your interest (see details in this thread above).

So far, we have received interest from 3 projects, and we can fund up to 7 in the next round. We would also be happy to walk you through the process individually if this will be your first time mentoring in the program.

Drop a note here: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T289893

Cheers,

Srishti

(on behalf of the organization team)

On Fri, Aug 27, 2021 at 3:46 PM Srishti Sethi <ssethi@wikimedia.org> wrote:

Hello everyone,

Wikimedia is participating in the winter edition of this year's Outreachy <https://www.outreachy.org/> [1] (December 2021–February 2022)! The deadline to submit projects on the Outreachy website is September 30th, 2021.

If you would like to share an idea for a project that you would like to mentor or you are not familiar with the program and want to learn anything more about it, feel free to reply to this email or leave a note on <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T289893> [2].

About the Outreachy program:
Outreachy offers three-month internships to work remotely in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), coding and non-coding projects with experienced mentors. These internships run twice a year–from May to August and December to March. Interns are paid a stipend of USD 5,500 for the three months of work. They also have a USD 500 stipend to travel to conferences and events. Interns often find employment after their internship with Outreachy sponsors or jobs that use the skills they learned during their internship. This program is open to both students and non-students. Outreachy expressly invites the following people to apply:

• Women (both cis and trans), trans men, and genderqueer people.
• Anyone who faces under-representation, systematic bias, or discrimination in the technology industry in their country of residence.
• Residents and nationals of the United States of any gender who are Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American/American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander.

See a blog post highlighting experiences and outcomes of interns who participated in a previous round of Outreachy with Wikimedia <https://techblog.wikimedia.org/2021/06/02/outreachy-round-21-experiences-and-outcomes/> [3]

Some tips for mentors for proposing projects:

• Follow this task description template when you propose a project in Phabricator: <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/outreach-programs-projects/> [4]. Add #Outreachy (Round 23) tag to it.
• Remember, the project should require an experienced developer ~15 days to complete and a newcomer ~3 months.
• Each project should have at least two mentors, and one of them should hold a technical background.
• When it comes to picking a project, you could propose one that is:
• Relevant for your language community or brings impact to the Wikimedia ecosystem in the future.
• Welcoming and newcomer-friendly and has a moderate learning curve.
• A new idea you are passionate about, there are no deadlines attached to it; you always wanted to see it happen but couldn't due to lack of resources help!
• About developing a standalone tool (possibly hosted on Wikimedia Toolforge), with fewer dependencies on Wikimedia's core infrastructure, it doesn't necessarily require a specific programming language.

See roles and responsibilities of an Outreachy mentor <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Outreachy/Mentors> [5].

We look forward to your participation!

Cheers,
Srishti

(On behalf of the organization team)

[1] https://www.outreachy.org/

[2] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T289893

[3] https://techblog.wikimedia.org/2021/06/02/outreachy-round-21-experiences-and-outcomes/

[4] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/outreach-programs-projects/

[5] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Outreachy/Mentors

Srishti Sethi Senior Developer Advocate Wikimedia Foundation