Written by: Juliana Fajardini, OISF Developer
In August, Outreachy opens its second round of internships for the year. Having been recently an intern via that programme myself, and as someone who is part of a community who wants to give back and help in building more opportunities, I am happy to announce that OISF is taking part in this round, once again.
But what is Outreachy, and why do we think it’s important to be part of this initiative?
Outreachy is a program that aims at supporting newcomers to open source in making their first contributions, focusing on underrepresented groups in IT in general and FOSS in particular. They do that by offering 12-week paid and mentored internships that aim at their learning and personal improvement.
It began as an initiative for women but, understanding the many aspects of inequalities in our societies, it has moved towards welcoming a wider community who, for a variety of reasons, usually doesn’t have that many opportunities and open doors.
OISF wants to support that movement. We want to foster the participation of more diverse folks in InfoSec, and by having projects with Outreachy interns, we understand that we are supporting their learning and professional development while making the effort of learning and becoming better ourselves, as we get in touch with more realities and see our projects from fresher perspectives.
Outcomes
Internships run twice a year: from May to August, and from December to March. This is our third time opening up for Outreachy interns. Our alumni – Vagisha Gupta, Tharushi Jayasekara, and myself – now work with InfoSec, or FOSS, or both (hi!), having been hired shortly after finishing their internships. Shivani Bhardwaj, who was one of my mentors during my Outreachy internship and who is now a coworker and friend, began her career with an Outreachy internship with Netfilter. And we’re looking forward to getting to know the awesome people around there who are interested in spending some time developing and working with us, soon!
If you would like to learn more about some of the projects our interns have worked on, how did their experience go, or even how could one apply for Outreachy internships, we’ve recorded a webinar with a Beginner’s guide to contributing to Suricata, including some explanation about the process of applying to Outreachy. You can watch it on YouTube.
For the reading lovers out there, there are personal blog posts, as well. You can find Vagisha’s writings about the end of her internship; Tharushi’s wrap-up on her contributions to OISF; and also my view on what the Outreachy experience meant, for me.
How to apply
Want to apply or know someone who would love to? Find out more about the process and apply on the Outreachy application page. Bear in mind that for this round the final deadline for participants’ applications is September 3 and that there are some eligibility criteria to be met.
What else? Outreachy will host a chat on Twitter on August 23, 4 p.m. UTC, and we plan to be there. And on August 19th — in three days! — we’ll be hosting our first Office Hours, and which you are free to join, too, if you would like to meet us there: register at https://lu.ma/4v7h13c0
So if you have any questions for us, or about the whole process, do show up in one of those two! 🙂
You can also always reach directly to us via forum.suricata.io or even send a message to info at oisf dot net, if you have specific questions.
Thanks for reading and for helping us spread the word! The meerkat family sends out their hugs.
(image source: https://fonwall.ru/en/wallpaper/meerkat-suricate-suricata-gaea.html)