First up, kudos to our application reviewers—they wrapped up the application review like they were on a mission to break records. The new application reviewers seamlessly joined the team, making our already awesome crew even more formidable.
Now, onto the Coffee sessions. One session was all about giving our newcomers a roadmap for navigating the open-source world. I led the session on breaking down the Github UI and getting hands-on with an issue from a contributor on the Outreachy website repo. We covered everything from creating branches to naming conventions, editing files, making commits, and the grand finale—opening a Pull Request. It was a super engaging session, and seeing folks from the audience jump in to help answer questions in the chat gave off some seriously good teamwork vibes.
Post my session, an Outreachy alum took the mic to spill the beans on making non-code contributions and finding projects in need of them. Eye-opening stuff, let me tell you. Now I’ve got my sights set on translations, but before that, a little polish on my local language skills. Challenge accepted!
We had another Coffee chat to talk about picking Outreachy projects and reaching out to mentors. It was like a strategy sesh, and I’m pretty sure it was a goldmine for many applicants.
In anticipation of the forthcoming Outreachy contribution stage, the Outreachy organizers started a mentor office hours to help coordinators and mentors navigate the contribution stage. Twice a week, we have one hour sessions where mentors can join us and ask questions. We’ve had some awesome discussions with both the seasoned and fresh mentors. I’m especially looking forward to these sessions during the contribution stage and figuring out ways to better support our mentors and coordinators.
So, there you have it! This month was a mix of GitHub adventures, non-code escapades, and mentor meetups. Can’t wait to see where the Outreachy contribution stage takes us next! ☕💻✨
Tilda's Thoughts 