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Navendu Pottekkat
Navendu Pottekkat

Posted on • Edited on • Originally published at navendu.me

20+ Open Source Internship Programs that you can Apply to

Contributing to open-source is one of the best ways to gain skills and build your resume as a student or as a new developer.

As open-source becomes the norm, more and more big tech companies and non-profit organizations have been investing into open-source projects and into internship programs.

These programs often offer the intern a mentorship opportunity and a stable stipend so that they can invest their time to work on these projects.

This post consists of all the details of these programs. You can skip to the summary for quick access to all these resources.

🤓 You can also read this post on my blog.

Google Summer of Code (GSoC)

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
Google Summer of Code (GSOC) 10 Weeks, ˜3 Months January 2021 - August 2021 $1500 - $3300

This is one of the most popular programs with 700+ participating organizations. The program is organized by Google and each year students identify projects and submit proposals to work on them. Accepted students are assigned a mentor by the participating organization and students spend their summer working with them.

Linux Foundation Mentorship Program (LFX)

This program is organized by The Linux Foundation and aims to pair open-source talent with experienced mentors. The students identify a project and create a profile to submit an application. Mentees can apply to 3 projects at a time.

MLH Fellowship

This program will provide you the opportunity to contribute to the type of open-source projects that every company depends on.

There are also non-open-source programs that MLH offers. See fellowship.mlh.io/#programs.

Google Season of Docs (GSoD)

This program gives technical writers an opportunity to gain experience in open-source.

If you are interested in contributing to documentation, this is a really good opportunity to work on some interesting projects.

Outreachy

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
Outreachy 3 Months May - August, December - March (Applications due September 3) $5500

Outreachy is a diversity initiative that provides paid, remote internships to people subject to systemic bias and impacted by underrepresentation in the technical industry where they are living.

Season of KDE

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
Season of KDE 3 Months January - April No

This program offers an opportunity for people to participate in both code and non-code projects that benefits the KDE ecosystem.

Free Software Foundation (FSF) Internship

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Internship 12 Weeks 3 terms yearly No

This program provides an opportunity to work closely with the FSF staff members in your area of interest, such as campaign and community organizing, free software licensing, systems and network administration, GNU Project support, or Web development.

Linux Kernel Mentorship Program

This program from The Linux Foundation connects experienced Linux Kernel developers and maintainers with mentees to help the become contributors to the Linux Kernel.

The program serves as a vehicle to reach out to students and developers to inject new talent into the Linux Kernel community. It aims to increase diversity in the Linux Kernel community and work towards making the kernel more secure and sustainable. We strongly encourage applicants who are from traditionally underrepresented or marginalized groups in the technology and open source communities, including, but not limited to: persons identifying as LGBTQ, women, persons of color, and/or persons with disabilities.

Linux Foundation Networking (LFN) Mentorship Program

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
Linux Foundation Networking (LFN) Mentorship Program 12 Weeks FT, 24 Weeks PT June 1st - August 21st, September 1st - ? $3000 - $6600

This program - also from The Linux Foundation - aims to provide opportunity to gain exposure to LFN's projects and technical communities.

The mentors in this program are active developers and technologists contributing to the industry's leading open source networking projects such as ONAP, OPNFV, OpenDaylight, FD.io.

GNOME Summer of Code

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
GNOME Summer of Code 10 Weeks, ˜3 Months January 2021 - August 2021 $1500 - $3300

This is provided through GSoC to help underrepresented groups in free and open-source software to get involved with GNOME projects.

Alibaba Summer of Code

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
Alibaba Summer of Code 3 Months May 25th - August 31st (2020) Yes

Students will receive mentorship from the Alibaba team to work on a series of open-source projects.

FOSSASIA Codeheat

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
FOSSASIA Codeheat Year round October - June Prizes for winners

This is a coding contest for FOSSASIA projects on GitHub and a jury wil choose winners from the top 10 contributors based on the code quality and the relevance of the commits.

FOSSASIA Internship Program

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
FOSSASIA Internship Program 2 - 6 Months Decided individually Yes

In the program we are looking for people who would like to work on the project they choose continuously. Different to GSoC in the internship it is not only about a specific project proposal. We rather look for participants who are interested to advance the project and solve bugs or add features that are required to bring the project forward.

Open Summer of Code

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
Open Summer of Code 16 days See Timeline Yes

This program will coach the students into working in different open innovation projects provided by partnering organizations, companies and governments.

Open Mainframe Project Mentorship Program

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
Open Mainframe Project Mentorship Program 3 Months Through GSoC or LFX Yes

This program would help the mentee to expand their knowledge of mainframe technology and would help them contribute to open-source projects that make it easier for infrastructure applications to run on mainframe.

CNCF Mentoring Initiatives

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
CNCF Mentoring Initiatives ˜3 Months See Mentoring Programs Yes

Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) offers a vibrant community of projects and offers internships throughout the year through different mentoring programs.

X.Org Endless Vacation of Code (EVoC)

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
X.Org Endless Vacation of Code (EVoC) 3 - 4 Months Can be initiated anytime $3000

The EVoC program was initiated to help support more projects that would otherwise go rejected through GSoC. Students are welcome to either come up with an idea on their own or work up a proposal for an idea suggested by someone else.

Hyperledger Mentorship Program

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
Hyperledger Mentorship Program 3 Months FT - 6 Months PT June 1st $3000 - $6600

This program provides a structured and hands-on opportunity for students and new developers gain exposure to Hyperledger open source development and entry to the technical community.

Julia Seasons of Contributions (JSoC)

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
Julia Seasons of Contributions (JSoC) - Through GSoC or LFX Yes

A set of seasonal programs for funding or mentoring students and other developers to contribute to the Julia open-source ecosystem.

Summer of Haskell

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
Summer of Haskell 10 Weeks, ˜3 Months January 2021 - August 2021 $1500 - $3300

This program is an effort by Haskell.Org to reach out to students and encourage them to contribute to the Haskell community with the aid of experienced mentors.

24 Pull Requests

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
24 Pull Requests 1 Month December 1st - December 24th -

As the name suggests, this program encourages new contributors to make 24 pull requests in the month of December. This is a very beginner friendly program.

Summary

Here is the entire article summarized into a table:

Program Name Duration Timeline Stipend
Google Summer of Code (GSOC) 10 Weeks, ˜3 Months January 2021 - August 2021 $1500 - $3300
Linux Foundation Mentorship Program (LFX) 12 Weeks, ˜3 Months March 1st - May 31st, June 1st - August 31st, September 1st - November 30th $3000 - $6600
MLH Fellowship 12 Weeks September 20th - December 13th (3 batches year round) Up to $5000 (need based)
Google Season of Docs 6 Months May 17th - December 14th Depends of budget of the organization
Outreachy 3 Months May - August, December - March (Applications due September 3) $5500
Season of KDE 3 Months January - April No
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Internship 12 Weeks 3 terms yearly No
Linux Kernel Mentorship Program 12 Weeks March 1st - May 31st, June 1st - August 31st, September 1st - November 30th $3000 - $6600
Linux Foundation Networking (LFN) Mentorship Program 12 Weeks FT, 24 Weeks PT June 1st - August 21st, September 1st - ? $3000 - $6600
GNOME Summer of Code 10 Weeks, ˜3 Months January 2021 - August 2021 $1500 - $3300
Alibaba Summer of Code 3 Months May 25th - August 31st (2020) Yes
FOSSASIA Codeheat Year round October - June Prizes for winners
FOSSASIA Internship Program 2 - 6 Months Decided individually Yes
Open Summer of Code 16 days See Timeline Yes
Open Mainframe Project Mentorship Program 3 Months Through GSoC or LFX Yes
CNCF Mentoring Initiatives ˜3 Months See Mentoring Programs Yes
X.Org Endless Vacation of Code (EVoC) 3 - 4 Months Can be initiated anytime $3000
Hyperledger Mentorship Program 3 Months FT - 6 Months PT June 1st $3000 - $6600
Julia Seasons of Contributions (JSoC) - Through GSoC or LFX Yes
Summer of Haskell 10 Weeks, ˜3 Months January 2021 - August 2021 $1500 - $3300
24 Pull Requests 1 Month December 1st - December 24th -

Top comments (3)

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Navendu Pottekkat

Were you a part of any of these programs? Share your experience!

I will start off:

I have been an LFX mentee at the Meshery project. It was one of the best decisions I had ever made. I learned a lot and now I am able to pay it forward as a GSoC mentor for the Meshery project in the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

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Navendu Pottekkat

Did I miss any programs? Feel free to add them to my blog where I will try to keep this list updated! (Use this link to suggest changes to the blog post)

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Alen Abraham

That's a good amount of resources, thanks mate!