Couple of months ago I decided to apply for the winter 2019-2020 round of Outreachy.
Outreachy, for those who don’t know, provides internships in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) with the aim to support underrepresented groups of people. Outreachy internships are open to applicants around the world, and interns are able to work remotely.
There were quite a few very interesting projects to choose among this round, but since I have been a Debian user and contributor for a while and it is a project I really like, I decided to work towards it. I have been doing small Debian related events or gatherings in the community I was part of. The Debian project I applied for is “Create fundraising material for DebConf20+, document the fundraising processes and support a cycle”.
The initial tasks were very interesting and applicable to my skill-set, so I was really enjoying working on them. Also the mentor of the project was very responsive and helpful when I would have questions or feel in doubt and quite supportive, which was motivating me to keep contributing in such a great project.
While doing research for the initial application tasks I was surprised to also learn much more about the Debian community and the Debian project itself. I learned information about how past DebConfs have been organized, tools and methods that are used to make DebConfs happen around the world, and go deeper into understanding the different structures that make the whole Debian project so functional.
I would encourage people to find the courage within themselves and apply for the projects they like on Outreachy. And if they don’t get selected one round that shouldn’t mean giving up but trying again next round. I find it a very welcoming environment!
I am very happy I got selected to be one of the Outreachy interns for this round and will do my best to have great results and help on supporting Debian!