Mentorship as an Onramp to Open Source Contributions

Mentorship can be a powerful tool for cultivating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive tech pipeline. For mentors and maintainers, investing in these relationships can help to grow and sustain their technical communities. Meanwhile, mentees can benefit from a sense of belonging, alongside technical learning and professional development. Join us for a conversation about four mentorship initiatives serving as onramps to open source, especially for those minoritized in tech; these include a variety of models for bridging community colleges, research universities, and HBCUs with industry open source. We’ll discuss how these collaborations have been beneficial to everyone involved, and how such efforts can be beneficial to you as a potential mentor, maintainer, or mentee. We’ll then open up the floor to questions and conversation about mentorship in open source — and how you can get involved.

Session takeaways:

• Key considerations for launching a new mentorship initiative within your own project, organization, or community
• Existing programs you might engage with as a mentor or apply to as a mentee
• An invitation to join a growing cross-sector interest group on this topic