About me

Aemie, a tech enthusiast, open source developer and a DSC community lead. To connect with me, I am present on various platforms including github, linkedIn and dev.to.

The year 2020, for me, has been a rough ride of ups and downs, acceptance, and rejections. Though, I have learned from each step I went through. Currently, the most fun experience to date that has occurred is Outreachy for me. In this blog, I will cover the process of how I applied to Outreachy, how I chose Apache to contribute, and my journey as an Outreachy intern. It is going to be quite long so I hope you’ll patient enough to read through.

The Application Process For Outreachy

To apply for the application, I advise you to go through the eligibility rules of Outreachy. Outreachy focuses on encouraging the less identified group within the IT industry. If you are eligible, please give a try.

Within the application, they initially asked about the personal information and whether I have contributed to open source or not. (doesn’t have a highly great weightage) The major part of the application includes the essay questions where you need to express the reason why you are fit for outreachy, instances you’ve faced any form of discrimination within the development period, etc. It includes about 4 to 5 essay based questions. I advise keeping it simple and try not to use ambiguous statements. Use basic level English to write the essays and to make sure your grammar is correct, use Grammarly. Write an essay to about a maximum of 100 words itself.

Once your application is successfully submitted, you need to wait to get invited to participate during the selection period. If you’ve expressed your thoughts on why Outreachy would be the best fit for you, I am certain you will be invited.

The One Month Selection Period

The selection period is crucial as you’ve to choose the project you’re interested in. This period is a month-long and you can contribute to either one or more projects in this period. The instructions for choosing a project and contributing to it have been explained in the workshop by DSC NIT Surat. The link to the video is here.

Within the outreachy dashboard, as you contribute to the project, you need to keep track of the PR created and their statuses. Remember to include every contribution you make for the selected project, be it small or big.

In my experience, I focused on working on a project within Apache and created as maximum as contributions as I could within this period. I also made sure to stay connected with the mentors and active in the gitter channel as well.

Along with the contributions you record for a project, you need to fill out a final application for the same. As far as I remember for Apache, it included questions related to previous experience for Apache as user or contributor, relevant skills I have for the Apache project, and the timeline.

For these questions, I included a detailed explanation greater than 100 words. To give a model on one of the answers for relevant skills I have for the project:

In development, I have worked on projects related to web development, machine learning, computer vision, and blockchain technology. I have participated in 2 hackathons to date.

Here, I also gave a detailed explanation of the projects I created during both my hackathons and the tech stacks I have used. On the ending note, I included:

Also, with this project, I became comfortable with the use of cloud database management services such as firebase. I was able to develop skills in UI designing which helps me with understanding the possible UI designs for a website.

With various projects, I have developed sufficient skills with frontend, backend, cloud-storage, javascript, and reading documentation.

The timeline was a detailed week by week explanation on the tasks I would perform while working towards the project as an Outreachy intern.

Outreachy Journey

I focused on contributing to the Apache project for Improving the camel website. I continued to engage within the community and made sure to understand the structure of the repository and contributing as maximum as I could for the month.

After the month, when the final decision came I was chosen as the Outreachy intern. The best moment for me! I have learned a lot along with these 3-month internships on the project with my mentors and the community. I have included my outreachy journey in a series of blogs as well. It is an amazing and unforgettable experience.

I will be ending this article and hoped you were able to make the most out of this article.