Outreachy report #23: July 2021
1:1s with Sage
Sage and I decided to increase the frequency of our 1:1s. Stand-ups are a great way to check on what we’ve been doing daily, but oftentimes Sage and I would face a situation that requires in-depth conversations about a specific internal process or the program’s history. Even though the program itself is cyclical – so much so we’re starting to reach a point I’m now very familiar with every single step we have to take –, it can be difficult to predict the right time to mention the right thing.
Sage has done a great job at documenting many internal processes throughout the years, but some aspects of the program – internship withdraw and termination policies, seeking volunteers to help us with initial applications – are either too new or too dependent on a specific chain of events. More frequent meetings give me the opportunity to ask more questions and promptly discuss on-going situations in a timely manner.
Midpoint feedback review
Reviewing midpoint feedback submissions gave me a much better idea of how the program progresses throughout the weeks. I found it to be really rare to see red flags in initial feedback submissions – both mentors and interns are still quite excited about the internship itself and might brush off underlying issues. Midpoint feedback submissions, on the other hand, tend to be more realistic about an intern’s progress – which usually translates into multiple internship extension requests. Running the program in the middle of a pandemic – especially in a round that welcomes so many people living in countries like India – has also an unfortunate effect: an increase of extensions due to sickness.
For now, I’ve taken care of more straight-forward situations – simple internship extensions and interventions. Sage has taken care of consecutive extensions and internships that may end in terminations. Just like reviewing initial applications, I feel like following up to feedback we’ve received requires a certain expertise, a feeling you develop as you slowly become more proficient in managing them.
As I mentioned earlier, managing such a cyclical program means that I’ll probably be much better at handling those situations independently in the next round. But the road to independence is quite a bumpy one, requiring patience to learn by practice and example.
- One intern withdrew for personal reasons and one intern may be heading to termination.
- 11 interns received out “burn out email” (against 18 from the initial feedback).
- Few interns who received our “burn out email” after their initial feedback continued to overwork.
December 2021
Our initial applications open next Monday. We’ve started looking for volunteers to help us with reviews by sending emails to trusted members of the Outreachy community and contacting previously approved reviewers. I’m also updating our document about Brazilian universities since we’re expecting a significant amount of applications by students from that country. Other improvements include updating the application reviewer documentation to reflect recent changes, adding some quality of life updates to the initial application review interface, and reviewing essay qualities.