June 2023: Outreachy Milestone Celebration and Open Source Festival

It's been a busy and impactful month as Outreachy celebrates the milestone of 1,000 interns in this May 2023 cohort.

The hybrid celebration will be held globally in seven countries (Nigeria, India, Germany, Kenya, Cameroon, Canada, and the USA) and virtually.

Alongside my team, we worked with all countries' celebration leads to ensure we had a successful event across the board. I worked closely with Olushola Ogunkelu, who led the Lagos, Nigeria, event. The Lagos event took place on June 18, 2023.

PS: All Outreachy pictures are licensed with CC-BY attribution. Do take note of this when you share or use it.

Left: Omotola, Outreachy community manager, and Muniar (who came to Nigeria from Somalia); Right: Olushola, Outreachy Lagos celebration Lead.

It was a great gathering; tons of folks signed up for the event, and the excitement was undeniable.

Excited attendees at the Outreachy 1,000 intern celebration in Lagos, Nigeria.

Part of the gathering was an insightful discussion session. The attendees discussed the Outreachy program application process. We discussed how overwhelming applicants feel during the contribution stage, and suggestions were made on how more Open Source & open science communities and mentors should come in and support the Outreachy organizers to bring more folks into the program. Having diverse projects that welcome all career paths in tech and are beginner-friendly will also make the contribution stage easier.

This discussion again brings more light to the fact that Outreachy needs more mentors and projects for the program.

Discussion session on the Outreachy application process.

Discussion about life before and after Outreachy gave me goosebumps and gladdens my heart at every point of thinking about or remembering the alums' comments. People stated that they got jobs after Outreachy, improved and learned soft skills, and became less timid; some are now mentors giving back to the open source communities.

Some of the Outreachy alums have gotten paid opportunities after their internship.

We had a lot to eat and drink to mark the celebration. Just take a look at those cute cupcakes (wink).

Buvet food settings and cute cupcakes with Outreachy 1000 intern celebration inspiration.

And we had swag, which represents a part of Outreachy. With these, the Outreachy folks will have a piece of Outreachy with them and use it to advocate for the program.

A display of the Outrewachy swags and an intern holding one of the props

The experience of physically meeting and connecting with people we have been working with and communicating virtually was excellent. I love it, and it even makes me, and I'm sure every other person who was present, even stronger and more included.

Group Picture: Outreachy interns, mentors, and community coordinators gathered to celebrate the 1,000 interns milestone in Lagos, Nigeria.

It was great to have the support of the Outreachy celebration volunteers, who did their best to ensure the event's success. A special shoutout to Justin W. Flory, who has been a mentor with the Fedora and UNICEF Innovation communities.

More pictures from the Outreachy 1,000 Interns celebration in Nigeria

The largest open-source festival in Africa is held in Lagos, Nigeria. Outreachy joined this large gathering as a diversity partner and supported diverse folks to attend this event via the partnership.

[Left] A picture of me speaking on Building, Mentoring, and Internships in Open Source; [Middle] Speaking at the Women in Open Source breakfast on Maximizing your uniqueness as women in tech; [Right] Facilitating a session on Paid open source internships.

Not only did I empower OSCAFest 2023 attendees via my sessions, but it was also a great privilege as I got to meet (for the first time) open source folks I've been following on social media for years and even meet more new folks. I wrote more on this in an article titled "Community: The Sustainability of Open Source."