My Outreachy Application Experience: What I Did Right and What You Need to Know – A Complete Guide

shade akinremi — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 16:30:55 +0000

So, you’re looking for an internship that allows you to grow your skills while contributing to open source, and you’ve stumbled upon Outreachy. Now, you’re wondering: How do I get through the initial application and reach the contribution stage? You’re in the right place!

Outreachy internships run twice a year—from May to August and December to March. The key to success is preparedness, and you don’t need to wait for applications to open before getting started. Below are the steps I took to get my initial application accepted, allowing me to proceed to the contribution phase of the Outreachy June 2025 internship round.

1. Stay Updated on Outreachy Announcements: Before the application period opened in February, I had already:

Signed up for their announcement mailing list to receive notifications about the next internship round.
Followed Outreachy on X (Twitter) for real-time updates.

2. Research and Understand the Process: I took the time to thoroughly research the internship by reading their Applicant Guide page. This helped me understand:

Eligibility rules
The application timeline
What to expect during the contribution phase

3. Prepare Strong Essay Responses: The initial application requires answering the following essay questions:

What country will you be living in during the internship?
Are you part of an underrepresented group in the tech industry in your country? How?
What systemic bias or discrimination would you face when applying for a tech job in your country?
Does your learning environment have few people who share your identity or background? Provide details.
What systemic bias or discrimination have you faced while building your skills?

Tips for Answering the Essays:

Follow the guidelines on the Applicant Guide page.
Use personal experiences that describe specific challenges you’ve faced.
Support your points with research data, if possible. For example, if your community discourages women from pursuing education, you can reference a study showing the low education rates of women in your region.

Extra Tip: Write and save your responses in Google Docs or a word processor so that when applications open, you can easily copy and paste your answers.

Congratulations, Your Initial Application is Accepted! What’s Next?

4. Select Projects That Match Your Skills: Once accepted, log into your Outreachy account and go through the projects listed on the Project Selection page.

Choose at least two projects that align with your skills and experience level.

5. Start Contributing to Your Chosen Projects: Each project has its own contribution guidelines. Click on the individual project pages and painstakingly follow their instructions.

Make contributions following the project’s requirements.
Record every contribution—this is crucial for your final application.
Ask for help in the project’s community if you get stuck. Your mentors and fellow applicants are there to help!

6. Submit Your Final Applications: A few days before the final application deadline, begin working on your final application for both projects you contributed to.

Fill out all the required details and ensure your contributions are documented.
Reach out to project mentors for clarification if needed.
Submit your final applications before the deadline—this is the only way to be considered for selection as an intern.

This application process may seem stressful at first, but by staying prepared, actively contributing, and engaging with mentors, you’ll significantly increase your chances of success. Goodluck!

HAVE YOU HEARD OF FEDORA PROJECT? THE COOLEST AND MOST INCLUSIVE LINUX DISTRIBUTOR

shade akinremi — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 14:15:23 +0000

This won’t be just another technical explainer. I first came across the Fedora Project while searching for an open-source project to contribute to during my 2025 Outreachy application, and I was struck by its simplicity.

The Fedora Project is a global community of users and developers who collaborate to build Fedora Linux, an open-source operating system. What makes Fedora stand out? For one, it’s completely free and open-source, with new releases every six months and updates for 13 months. The project places strong emphasis on detailed documentation, ensuring users have clear guides on installation and usage. Unlike many Linux distributions, Fedora follows a liberal updates policy—balancing frequent improvements with minimal disruption. Backed by an active and diverse community, it evolves rapidly.

So why is Fedora cool? Beyond building a system tailored to users, it operates on Four Foundations: Freedom, Friends, Features, and First. Fedora champions open-source software and free content as its core values, fosters a welcoming community, and prioritizes transparency and openness in the development of its Fedora Linux features. Today marks just three days since I started contributing, yet I’ve already received help from people across the world in their community, many of whom are also applying for Outreachy. Fedora is often ahead in feature releases, thanks to its rapid cycle. Frequently updating your operating system may sound overwhelming, but users can skip a release and still receive updates for their current Fedora Linux version for 13 months.

One aspect of Fedora that I find particularly interesting is its Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Team. This team works to create a more inclusive open-source community where everyone is respected, supported, and encouraged. I look forward to interning with this team because I understand firsthand how systemic exclusion affects careers and, in turn, other aspects of life, creating a cycle of frustration. Some of Fedora Project's DEI initiatives include:

Fedora Week of Diversity (FWD): An annual event celebrating the diverse individuals within the Fedora Community.
Event Location Policy: Approved in 2025, this policy establishes DEI criteria for selecting locations for large-scale Fedora community events.
Contributor Stories: A recognition initiative that highlights individual contributors who have positively impacted others during their time in Fedora.

This article wouldn’t be balanced if I didn’t discuss what I found confusing about Fedora at first. Before I started contributing, I was curious about how it remained financially sustainable when it wasn’t directly generating revenue from the sales of its operating system. My research revealed that Fedora is primarily sponsored by Red Hat, which provides full-time employee support, hardware and bandwidth, infrastructure, event funding, and legal counsel. The Fedora Project also has other corporate sponsorships and does not accept funding from individuals.

That’s my take on Fedora! If you’re a 2026 Outreachy applicant reading this, hello from the past. The best place to start exploring Fedora is their website, and you can always ask for help from their community whenever you are stuck—after finishing this article, of course. Good luck!

Forem: shade akinremi

My Outreachy Application Experience: What I Did Right and What You Need to Know – A Complete Guide

HAVE YOU HEARD OF FEDORA PROJECT? THE COOLEST AND MOST INCLUSIVE LINUX DISTRIBUTOR