I have just been accepted in the Google Summer of Code 2019 and I couldn’t be happier, Yay! 😄 This comes to light as my biggest career achievement so far as well as a huge opportunity to learn and grow further.

The acceptance was announced on 6th May.

What is GSoC?

Google Summer of Code is a global program focused on bringing more student developers into open source software development. Students work with an open source organization on a 3-month programming project during their break from school. During which, each student developer is continuously guided by mentors from the respective organization.

It gives students the platform to build collaborative working skills, get support from mentors, learn skills that matter and get a one-time referral for interviews at Google while getting stipends up to 6k USD.

But, it is really the integration with the open source community and the mentoring organization that appeals to me the most.

Creative Commons

To be accepted, you need to submit a proposal to the organization you want to collaborate with. After going through all participating organizations, I found myself interested in one of the project ideas of Creative Commons. That is when I became involved with the CC community and decided to write my proposal for it. I’ll be sharing this whole process in detail in another article for future GSoC aspirants. 🤞

As a first-year student, it was a time-taking and consistency-demanding work. Credits to my elder brother Ahmad Awais and his wife Maedah Batool for keeping me motivated and never letting me give up. It wouldn’t have been possible at all without them.

Finally, my worthy mentors Timid Robot, Hugo Solar and Kriti Godey helped me improve the proposal before giving me a good-to-go sign. Participants can submit proposals to three different organizations but I kept my focus on one and was lucky enough to get selected. I was in total disbelief when I saw my name among the selected students.

It is a huge opportunity indeed, and I will do everything to make the most out of it. Looking forward to a great summer! 🙌