My story
I know about Google Code-In almost for two years but it’s my first year participating. I used to be sure that my skills were too bad for such a contest. I’m happy I participated this year though.
As soon as organizations were announced, I went through them and saw OpenMRS. Since the early beginning I wanted my future organization to be focused on doing social good. Apart from coding, I love volunteering and creating social projects, that’s why I wanted to connect two passions: programming and social activism.
So, what is OpenMRS?
OpenMRS (Open Medical Recording System) is an open-source organization with a long history. It was founded in 2004 and now it’s used all over the world. Take a look at OpenMRS Atlas to find out where exactly!
It has a module-based structure which means that you have kind of LEGO bricks to build a platform with the features which you decide you need. That’s why OpenMRS has a lot of repositories on GitHub. When I first saw this huge code base, I thought I would get lost somewhere there.
The community itself is big and welcoming. There are many fields where you can contribute, including coding, design, quality assurance, translations etc. I’m definitely going to stay in the community after GCI ends, because I feel like I can be helpful in some of these fields.
Well, what about the contest itself?
I think most of you know that Google Code-In is a competition for high school students from 13 to 17 years old. I don’t want to overburden you with all the dry information, so just checkout the website if you are not familiar with it.
During Google Code-In period I've completed 21 tasks. But quantity doesn’t matter much here. The most important thing about it is to stay in top 20 for your organization, but your place in that top doesn’t affect anything in most of cases.
The thing which I’d recommend to do is just to enjoy the process. I still can’t believe these 2 months passed by. The contest goes faster than you might think. I made good friends and built connections with people from all over the world, and I cannot be happier about it.
Gratitude
I don’t want to list all the names which were important to me during this journey, because honestly I’m afraid to forget somebody.
Thank you, mentors and admins, for all the support and help. You made me feel comfortable in this community and I believe it’s the best thing which could happen. Those of you who are maintainers and/or checked our code works, I admire your patience, it’s impressive!
My dear fellows, thanks for the wonderful time we had together. Offtop chat’s such a nice place for having fun as well as discussing important processes happening in the world and our views on them. It was a great time.
Why should you participate?
To sum up, everybody who is reading this wondering whether or not to participate, please, do it! You lose nothing by trying, right? I remember myself reading so many Medium posts before. I know you may feel unsure about your skills, you may not have coding in your school or enough experience, but I still encourage you to try. This experience is definitely worth it.
UPD: I AM A GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Recently I got a mail saying I am a Grand Prize Winner. I am so excited and grateful for everything. Thank you, mentors, for believing in me. Can’t wait to go to San Francisco and write a post about this experience!
