So, this year I have been selected for both Google Summer of Code and Outreachy.

Since these are both programs that are very desirable on a Computer Science curriculum, and also very important in a student’s growth, I wanted to publicly share my experience with both programs to encourage anybody who is reading this blog post (if they have the requirements) to apply, and to give an example of an accepted proposal.

Since there is a huge number of guides on how to get accepted and how the application period and the internship period work, this post will be more about my personal experience and what challenges I had to overcome.

Even if I was accepted into both programs, I had to choose only one of the two. I chose Google Summer of Code, and in the next posts I will explain more in detail why.

This first post will only be a brief overview of what the two programs are, and I the next posts I will talk more in detail about my experience:

Overview of the programs

Google Summer of Code is a program aimed at university students, with the goal of bringing them closer to open source projects and organizations. The program is organized by Google, but within the same program you can chose among a lot of organizations (all of them will propose full open source projects) that you want to contribute to. There are about 200 organizations, each proposing several projects and accepting applicants proposals. , and within each one you can choose between different projects that they propose to the applicants. If you are accepted into the program, you will contribute to the selected project in a 3 month internship, 40 hours a week.

Outreachy, formerly Outreach Program for Women (OPW), is very similar to GSoC, with the main difference that is aimed at minorities, so it is mainly directed towards women and people whose minority is underrepresented in technology. The other difference is that it is held twice a year, while GSoC is only held once.

Google Summer of Code will get its participants from a bigger pool, and therefore, from what I have seen, is more competitive. But the number of accepted interns is also hugely different: while GSoC will accept about 1300 participants, Outreachy accepts about 40. This is also because the number of people who applies to Outreachy is much less.

Why should you participate?

You’ll be working for three months in an organization you like a lot
You will have the opportunity to participate in a big open source project
You will have a dedicated mentor to follow you and your work directly
You will learn a lot!
It will look nice on your curriculum
And if all this isn’t enough, you’ll be paid very nicely.

So, that’s all for now. Thanks for reading (: