The Outreachy December 2024 Community Call for Proposals is now open! Before the round opened, the Outreachy Organizers did a lot of brainstorming about the start of this round. We discussed how to continue doing the amazing work we’ve been doing for 14+ years even with our funding situation. If you’d like to know more about our funding and how support Outreachy, read our recent blog post.
Drawing on feedback from the previous cohort’s mentors, we’ve updated our applicant documentation, particularly the project timeline guide. As the number of Outreachy applicants grows, our documentation also has to be revised to match the scale.
In the final application, applicants are required to provide a project timeline for the internship period. Our current documentation directs applicants to work on these timelines with their mentors. However, some projects receive many Outreachy applicants during each contribution stage. It would be extremely overwhelming for mentors to review every applicant’s project timeline.
Drawing from my experiences as an applicant/intern and the lessons my Public Lab mentors taught me about modularity, we revised the documentation. The updated documentation (yet to be deployed) encourages applicants to take more initiative in preparing a project timeline. They are encouraged to review the project description, break them down into smaller tasks and remember to make the timeline flexible. With this change, applicants are encouraged to work on their own. I think it’s also a great way for mentors to assess how an applicant approaches working on a big task. View the pull request on GitHub.
Speaking of growth, I recently had an informal chat with two interns from the May 2024 cohort. We talked about their projects, the challenges and lessons, and life after their internships. I’m very confident that these interns will do great things after the internship. Every intern I speak with mentions how much their mindset has changed. They are more confident in their capabilities and open to new career paths. It brings me so much joy when interns experience this and knowing they’ll be ending their internships with added confidence in their skills.
As one cohort ends, another begins. Till next time!
Tilda's Thoughts 