Outreachy is a program for open source internships that specifically targets people in demographics that are underrepresented in tech. Since 2010 Outreachy has had over 400 participants making contributions to open source projects. Outreachy is one of the most effective programs for improving the diversity of open source communities. For those familiar with Google Summer of Code, Outreachy follows a very similar format.
The Continuous Delivery Foundation is a neutral home for the next generation of continuous delivery collaboration. We know that the greater number of diverse voices we have collaborating, the more effective we are as a community. Which is why we are thrilled to be participating in Outreachy for this upcoming round.
Three of the CD Foundation projects: Jenkins, Jenkins X and Tekton are offering Outreachy internship projects. The Jenkins project has participated in the previous 2 rounds of Outreachy, having a total of 4 Outreachy interns working with the community on the Jenkins Audit Log Plugin. Jenkins mentor Matt Sicker shares in this post “Outreachy has helped open my eyes to the struggles that developers from around the world are dealing with which can be improved upon to help expand our communities. For example, many countries do not have reliable internet or electricity, so the use of synchronous videoconferencing and other heavyweight, synchronous processes common to more corporate-style development are inadequate in this international context.”
In that way Outreachy is also beneficial to the mentors participating. The actual tech contributions are a bonus side effect. Jenkins participates in the program with no expectation that the interns remain part of the community – but takes a wider, long term view that this generally improves open source and tech communities as a whole. Tracy Miranda, Outreachy coordinator for the Jenkins project says “As of this year I know of 2 Outreachy alumni (non-Jenkins projects) who were hired by my employer and both mention the Outreachy program as an important stepping stone in their career journeys.”
Here are the details of this round’s CD Foundation projects which we are looking for interns for. Please help us spread the word.
Kara de la Marck, the Jenkins X Outreachy coordinator can personally speak to the benefits of the program: “Outreachy is a fantastic mentoring program that helps to onboard new contributors to a project and to open source more generally. Many participants go on to become long term contributors to open source. As an alumna, I have carried forward a deep appreciation of open source as an enabler of global collaboration, technological innovation, and community. I’m incredibly happy to welcome Outreachy participants to Jenkins X.”
Please help us spread the word, and we look forward to working with Outreachy interns and welcoming them into our community.
