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Outreachy report: April 2025

Highlights

Description of activities

The month of April started with an invitation from a professor of mine to speak with first year Software Engineering students at Universidade Federal de Goiás. Internally, we’ve discussed the importance of reaching this audience to encourage both more Brazilians and more students to apply to Outreachy, so it was the perfect opportunity to resume efforts to promote the program in my state.

In front of a classroom, I talk about myself: what I do, what I've done, and why I love free software.

The talk intertwined my own career path with the importance of using and contributing to free and open source software projects: I talked about my Outreachy internship with Wikimedia, my contributions in the Brazilian public sector, and my almost 7 year tenure as an Outreachy organizer. We discussed the importance of English as a second language for Brazilians entering the technology job market and how fundamental it is to take the process of learning seriously as we talked about the usage of LLMs.

Two students caught my eye: one who was particularly interested in the political and philosophical aspects of the software freedom movement and another who was pursuing a degree in Software Engineering after decades of experience and nearing their retirement. Both of them were touched by the fact I highlighted how not everyone follows the same so-called “happy path” to university and the job market—I brought up, time and time again, how I changed my mind several times in my 20s and I know a lot of people who changed theirs in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s.

While attending Ciclo de Formação Comunicação para a Cidadania and IWD Cerrado 2025 to formally represent Outreachy, I had conversations about the program with several attendees and speakers. Two conversations, in particular, were with founders or executive directors of similar initiatives in Brazil intertwining social impact and technology. We had conversations about trends in sponsorships and overall funding and the inner workings of the third sector in the country.

Internally, I worked on a grant proposal for a non-research project related to our Open Mentorship Initiative. I spent several days consolidating notes from two years of ideas into a coherent grant proposal, and I coordinated efforts to involve every Outreachy organizer in the writing of said proposal. We submitted it mid-April and we expect to receive an answer in early May.

As for our June 2025 cohort, it’s been shaping up to be of a similar size as our December 2024 cohort. We’ve been fully dedicated to the review of intern selections, and we had two have discussions with two participating communities about suspicious activities we detected during that process. Besides that, I’m confident that we’re on track to announce our interns next week.

Lastly, in face of financial struggles and uncertainty, my team and I have been exploring contingency plans and transformation possibilities for the program. Part of it has been guided by Ackoff’s Idealized Design process, and part of it has been guided by the requests of Software Freedom Conservancy’s board.

Challenges

Lessons learned

Upcoming activities