openSUSE becomes mentoring organization

Google announced yesterday (Leap Day) that the openSUSE Project has been accepted as a mentoring organization for this year’s Google Summer of Code.

University students can spend their summer break writing code and learning about open source development with openSUSE while earning money through Google’s 12-year old, annual international program.

“Mentoring is a big part of the openSUSE culture,” said Richard Brown, the chairman of the openSUSE Board. “To be selected as a mentoring organization for this year’s Google Summer of Code is an immense honor. The value GSoC brings is immeasurable because it does more than just support students learning and contributing to open source; it teaches them to build interpersonal skills while doing something technically challenging and gives them an opportunity to use their theoretical knowledge from university studies to solve real-world problems.”

Students now have time to look through the list of mentoring organizations and get in touch with different organizations and projects.

A list of available projects and points of contacts for students interested in openSUSE can be found at 101.opensuse.org.

“Google Summer of Code is an awesome opportunity to do work related to your academic pursuit, get in touch with an international community and learn from rock star FOSS developers,” said Christian Bruckmayer, who helped develop the openSUSE Developer Mentoring Program 101.opensuse.org and submitted the application for GSoC.

The next phase of GSoC is the Student Application Period. From March 14 to March 25, students write project proposals. The template for writing project proposals for openSUSE is listed on Github through openSUSE’s mentoring site 101.opensuse.org. There are plenty of other good articles on how to write a good project proposal.

Each student can submit up to five proposals, but are encouraged to focus on one or two projects and submit quality rather than quantity.

After students submit their proposals for GSoC, between March 26 and April 21, openSUSE mentors will review the student applications together with Google and decide who will be accepted based on the number of slots Google grants.

Google is scheduled to announce the accepted students on April 22 and the program will take place between May 23 and August 23.

Google Summer of Code is open to post-secondary students, age 18 and older in most countries.