Experiences applying to Outreachy

What is Outreachy & How to start?

Outreachy is an internship program that supports diversity in free and open-source software. The program is organized by Software Freedom Conservancy and supports people who are typically underrepresented in such projects.
Outreachy Program also supports their interns by providing a stipend of 5500 Dollar + 500 Dollar Travel Stipend.


I first came to know about the following program from my cousin. After which I googled about it and found it very interesting. After this, I waited for the initial application period to get open. It is quite easy to apply in the initial application, in the following you will need to give Basic Details, Some Essay Questions.. You need to be quite honest and give some real-life experiences in the Essay Question to raise the bar of your approval.


Once the initial application is done, You will receive an e-mail about the acceptance of your initial application. Each application is reviewed by Outreachy Organisers and then approved once they are eligible to move into the contribution period.
In the contribution period, You get to pair up with real-life projects of some very nice open source communities like Kubernetes, Mozilla, GIT and many more. You need to handpick a project and have to make a contribution in the following project to be eligible for the consideration of Outreachy Internship.


After the Contribution Period, you just need to sit back and wait for the results for the selected interns. Mentors of each organization carefully review each application and then select the interns they find promising.

My Personal Experiences

When I applied for the Outreachy, I was too nervous that will my application get forward into the contribution period? I had never worked with any of the big communities before Outreachy. But when my initial application got approved, I was on the seventh cloud. Soon after which I had my contribution period which I had to successfully complete to get selected as an Outreachy intern.


Once I got to see the project list, I started approaching my mentors to assign me some tasks. I also asked several doubts to my mentors for tackling the issue some of which are quite silly but my mentors were always supportive and helped me in every way they could.


When I was stuck, mentors gave me some of the external readings which proved quite useful in the way of tackling the issue.
Soon after this, I submitted my final application in which I made a brief timeline stating that how will I organize my work for a lot of 3 months.
This was my journey to becoming an Outreachy Intern. The process may seem quite confusing or hectic but believe me, it's quite easy and motivating. You get to learn new things, explore projects and finally get some great mentors!


Thank you that was all about my journey on becoming an Outreachy Intern.