[OH-Alumni] Apply to Google Summer of Code - deadline May 3rd

[Shauna Gordon-McKeon]

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Hello alumni!

We’ve mentioned Google Summer of Code at several of our more recent events.
 It’s a wonderful opportunity for you to get paid to spend all summer
working in an open source project.  We asked a friend of ours who did
Google Summer of Code last year to tell you about her experience.  You can
read about it below.

If you’re interested in learning more about GSoC, please feel free to email
Beth, or any one of us, or to join us on
IRC<http://openhatch.readthedocs.org/en/latest/contributor/chat_on_irc.html>.
 The deadline for applications this year is May 3rd, so if you want to
apply, you need to get started soon!

Now, without further ado, here’s Beth:

Have you ever stopped to consider how all the wonderful software
applications we use daily were built? Who wrote the code? Who generated the
ideas? In college you have probably taken courses in computer programming,
and you have certainly stayed up late completing difficult programming
assignments. But can you identify a few lines of code that you wrote that
are being use somewhere in the world? Now is your chance – apply to Google
Summer of Code.

This is a phenomenal summer opportunity to provide students with the
support they need to make a lasting impact on open source coding projects
worldwide. You must first look through the mentoring organizations and
identify which interest you (choose 2-3, but no more). Immediately contact
the mentor, and express the reasons for your interest. Ask how you can get
started learning more about the project and digging into the code. It is
important to make this initial contact and demonstrate, before the
application deadline, your passion to learn and your technical abilities.
For me, I looked through all the groups and found two that really
interested me. After spending a few days working with the code for both
projects, it was easy to see that I was much more prepared technically to
contribute to one than the other.

I was accepted to code for GNOME, a large open source organization with
many smaller subprojects. Specifically, I chose GCompris, a project that
makes free computer games for children. I was particularly interested in
this project because I noticed there were very few music computer games in
GCompris. I think music education is very important for young children, and
it certainly promotes a very different learning style than math or reading
activities. In my application, I described in detail my ideas for
implementing several music activities for GCompris. It was also very
important to stay organized, so I created a detailed plan for myself to
accomplish my summer goals. Since GSoC participants work at home, this
schedule is truly very important because it allows mentors and students to
stay organized and disciplined. At the same time, however, working from
home is very liberating and it certainly gave me lots of freedom to define
my own hours, or if I needed to take a week off I could arrange that
easily. I also really appreciated gaining experience working on an
international project, because I enjoyed discussing my ideas with GCompris
enthusiasts from all over the world via the mailing list.

The highlight of the summer, for me, was the opportunity to attend the
GNOME summer conference in Spain, where I could meet so many other
passionate open-source coders. I gained many new ideas, and met some really
amazing people that I enjoy keeping in contact with. At the end of the
summer, I didn’t want to stop coding for GCompris – I really enjoyed
contributing to the project. I helped my mentor integrate my work into the
full suite of activities, and now I am proud to say that children worldwide
are enjoying my music games in schools and at home. I even recently
received an email from a schoolteacher in Florida who was so impressed with
my work that he wishes to learn to create activities of his own for
GCompris. This is very inspiring to me. I hope that many of you can share
this same experience this summer by applying to Google Summer of Code. Do
not be intimidated; anyone with even a little coding experience and a
strong desire to learn will succeed. Please do not hesitate to contact me
if you have any questions: bethmhadley at gmail.com

More information on my summer:

http://bethgsoc.blogspot.com/

https://live.gnome.org/SummerOfCode2012/Projects/BethHadley_GCompris_Music

http://worldofgnome.org/beth-hadley-and-the-summer-of-gcompris/*
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