Core Values

Hey! Shreya this side. I’m an Outreachy 2020 intern at Public Lab. This blog series is about my journey with Outreachy. By the end of it, I hope you’ll find the answers you were looking for. If not, feel free to contact me.

What is Outreachy?

For many of you, the term ‘Outreachy’ might be new and an unexplored territory. I’ll try to break it down for you.

Outreachy provides internships to work in open source and free software. Outreachy internships are open to applicants around the world. Interns work remotely, and are not required to move. Interns are paid a stipend of $5,500 USD for the three month internship. Interns have a $500 USD travel stipend to attend conferences or events.

Interns work with experienced mentors from open source communities. Outreachy internship projects may include programming, user experience, documentation, illustration, graphical design, data science, project marketing, user advocacy, or community event planning.

Outreachy invites anyone faces under-representation, systemic bias, or discrimination in the technology industry of their country to apply. These include, but are not limited to, women (both cis and trans), trans men, and genderqueer people.

Outreachy is an opportunity for the under-represented communities to step into the open source world.

Why Outreachy?

I love development, and have harboured a love for it since the first time I saw what a few lines of code could do. But as someone new to open source world, having your work out in the open, asking questions, was intimidating. It was at this time that I learnt about Outreachy. Outreachy was on apportunity to step foot into the open source world, with some of the most warm and welcoming communities to guide you in this journey. They don’t expect you to know the answer, they just want you to be eager to learn, and sincere in your efforts. And with Outreachy, my learning curve went straight up.

Values that I believe in

Like I said above, any journey to me is about to two values: being eager to learn and sincere in your approach.

• Curiosity & Bravery
  You can’t learn without having the eagerness to learn. For those looking for guidance, this is the best advice I could give you: be brave in your pursuit of knowledge. Ask questions, ask all that comes to your mind. No question is silly. I consider myself as an introvert, so the prospect of asking a question on a chatroom was hard to digest. That was until that one time when I could see no way out of a bug that I was tracking. I spent five days going over the code day and night, but was still where I started. What to do now? I asked the mentor on the github thread, but with over 20 people looking for his help, I had to wait for a while. I finally gathered the courage to ask in the chatroom and two hours later, the ,now, 7 days old issue was fixed. That’s the lesson I took home that day. My hesitance to ask will only hinder my will to learn. So be curious and be brave!

• Sincerity
  Some days you get the work done, and on some days you get stuck. What matters at the end of the day is how sincere you are in your efforts. You might be knowledgeable and talented but your hardwork, your loyalty to your work, and your sincerity is what will decide how far you’ll go.

Even where there is talent, culture, knowledge, if there is not earnestness, it does not go to the root of things.