Date: August 13, 2021
Last updated: August 18, 2021 - Added eligibility rules for graduating students. See the Student eligibility policy section below.
Photo CC BY 2.0 GotCredit
Outreachy initial applications are open for the December 2021 to March 2022 internships.
The initial application deadline is earlier this year.
The initial application system will open at Aug. 9, 2021 at 4pm UTC. Initial applications are due Sept. 3, 2021 at 4pm UTC.
We strongly recommend you read our tips for application essays before submitting your initial application.
Please read about changes to our initial application.
Initial applications are reviewed on a first-come-first-served basis. Don't wait until the last day to submit your application!
What is Outreachy?
Commonly asked questions
Important dates
Twitter chat
Student eligibility policy
COVID-19 temporary time commitment policy
Changes for this round
Outreachy provides internships from May to August and December to March.
You'll work on open source projects. Experienced mentors will guide you.
Outreachy internships are paid! You will receive a $6,000 USD total stipend.
The internship is completely remote. You'll work from home. Your mentor will also be remote.
Photo CC BY 2.0 WOCinTech Chat
Outreachy is open to applicants around the world.
We invite people to apply who face systemic bias or discrimination in the technology industry of their country.
Outreachy expressly invites applicants who are women (both cis and trans), trans men, non-binary people, and genderqueer people to apply.
We also expressly invite applications who are residents and nationals of the United States of America of any gender who are Black/African American, Hispanic/Latin@, Native American/American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander.
Past Outreachy interns are:
Statistics are based on responses to the 2019 longitudinal study of Outreachy alums.
The Outreachy Applicant Guide has answers to many common questions, such as:
The initial application deadline is earlier this year. The initial application system will open at Aug. 9, 2021 at 4pm UTC. Initial applications are due Sept. 3, 2021 at 4pm UTC.
The Outreachy intern project project list will not be finalized until Oct. 8, 2021. That is after the initial application deadline.
Please fill out an initial application, even if you don't see a project that interests you. More projects will be added after the initial application deadline.
| Aug. 9, 2021 at 4pm UTC | Initial applications open |
| Sept. 3, 2021 at 4pm UTC | Initial application deadline |
| Oct. 15, 2021 | Project list finalized |
| Oct. 8, 2021 at 4pm UTC | Initial application results available |
| Oct. 8, 2021 to Nov. 6, 2021 | Contribute to projects |
| Nov. 6, 2021 at 4pm UTC | Final application deadline |
| Nov. 22, 2021 at 4pm UTC | Accepted interns announced |
| Dec. 6, 2021 to March 4, 2022 | Internships period |
Want to know what it's like to be an Outreachy intern? Have questions about applying? Join us for a Twitter chat!
Outreachy will run a chat on Twitter. The chat will introduce you to past Outreachy interns and current mentors.
The chat will have a question and answer format. The Outreachy Twitter account will ask questions of applicants, past interns, and current mentors. We will retweet all answers. You are welcome to ask additional questions during and after the chat. You can direct your questions to the Outreachy Twitter account, or past interns or current mentors who are participating in the chat.
The #OutreachyChat will happen on Aug. 23, 2021, 4 p.m. UTC. Please double check what time that is in your timezone. Please follow Outreachy on Twitter if you have a Twitter account.
The Outreachy organizers will be tweeting from the @outreachy Twitter account. Outreachy organizers will pose the questions below. Applicants, mentors, and past interns will answer. Outreachy organizers will wait about 5-10 minutes between questions.
The questions are prefaced with Q1, Q2, etc. You will need to reply with A1, A2, at the start of you answer. Please also use the hashtag #OutreachyChat in all your tweets related to the chat.
The following questions are used for the chat:
Q1: For interested applicants: What questions do you have for mentors, past interns, or organizers? #OutreachyChat
Q2: For past interns and mentors: Please introduce yourself. What community (did you intern with/are you mentoring for)? #OutreachyChat
Q3: For past interns and mentors: What do you love about participating in Outreachy? #OutreachyChat
Q4: For mentors: What is the project you are mentoring? What skills do people need to apply? What skills can they learn from you? #OutreachyChat
Q4: For past interns: What community did you intern with? What was your project? What did you learn during the internship? #OutreachyChat
Q5: For past interns and mentors: What is the Outreachy application process like? Do you have advice for applicants on how to stand out? #OutreachyChat
Outreachy is open to both students and people who are not students. Please see our full eligibility guidelines.
Outreachy organizers understand that schools are impacted by COVID-19. Some schools may have changed their term dates. We expect school term dates to continue to shift into 2022.
Outreachy wants to ensure students from the southern hemisphere to have a fair chance at an internship. Therefore, we are sticking with our policy that northern hemisphere students are only eligible for the May to August rounds. We consider India to be in the northern hemisphere, regardless of where the university is located.
We invite students from the southern hemisphere to apply to the Outreachy December 2021 to March 2022 round. If your university is near the equator, you are welcome to apply.
We want to ensure students with shifted term dates can participate. We typically require students to have 49 days free from school and exams during the internship. As a temporary policy, we have lowered that requirement to 42 days free from school during the internship.
Students in the northern hemisphere should to apply to the May 2022 to August 2022 internships, not to the December internship cohort.
Graduating students in the northern hemisphere may be eligible to apply to the December 2021 Outreachy internships. Graduating students are eligible if the exams for their last school term end before Jan. 20, 2022. If the school academic calendar continues past that date, graduating students are not eligible.
When determining student eligibility, Outreachy looks at the school's academic calendar dates. We do not consider the individual student's course load. We do not consider special arrangements students have made with their university. Students who plan on taking a school term off to pursue an internship are not eligible for Outreachy. We cannot accept letters from universities about pausing classes or joining classes at a later date.
When in doubt, graduating students should fill out an initial application. Make sure to accurately represent your school and employment time commitments.
Outreachy organizers will review the revised term dates for northern hemisphere schools before the next internship round. We will implement a similar policy (if needed) for the May 2022 to August 2022 internship cohort. We thank northern hemisphere students for their patience and support of southern hemisphere students.
Our temporary intern time commitment policy remains in place. This temporary policy applies to the December 2021 to March 2022 round:
We're only asking impacted interns to commit to working 75% of their normal hours. If interns are able to work more normal hours, they will get more out of the internship. We encourage interns to work as best they can, while not burning themselves out.
Mentors have been briefed to expect that some impacted interns may work less. That may mean mentors reduce the scope of their project, or expect that it will not be finished.
Outreachy already has permanent policies in place that ensure flexibility for interns:
The initial application deadline is earlier this year.
The initial application system will open at Aug. 9, 2021 at 4pm UTC. Initial applications are due Sept. 3, 2021 at 4pm UTC.
Shortening the initial application period helps Outreachy organizers. It means we have more time to review initial applications. We have added more initial application reviewers for this cohort. However, given the high volume of applications we receive, we need a full 4 weeks to review applications.
Outreachy organizers have made some changes to the initial application.
Clearer application instructions
We made application instructions more detailed. The new instructions answer common questions we get from applicants.
We simplified the English in our initial application. Our goal was to have a reading level of grade 4 or below. We hope this will help non-native English speakers.
Please read the initial application instructions carefully, since they have changed.
Essay length limit
Each essay answer is limited to 1000 characters. That is about 200 words.
Limiting the essay answer length helps us review applications faster.
Essay content warnings
Initial applications have essay questions. Some applicants may talk about very harsh or hard things in their essays. That's okay. There's no need to change your essay.
It can help Outreachy application reviewers to know what harsh or hard topics are in your essay. These are called "content warnings".
Content warnings can be one or two words. Examples include: "violence", "sexual assault", or "war".
The initial application now has a "content warnings" field in the essay section. It is an optional field. Applicants can use that field to add content warnings about their essays.
Content warnings help application reviewers mentally prepare to read your essay. Thank you for your help!
If you do not talk about harsh or hard things in your essays, leave this field blank.
Shorted open source contribution questions
The initial application used to ask detailed questions about past open source contributions. The initial application asked what type of contributions applicants made. There was a long series of check boxes for different open source contribution types.
We had tried to be inclusive towards people who make non-programming contributions to open source. The check boxes included many types of contributions, like documentation or event planning.
However, we found that the long list of open source contribution types had a negative effect on applicants. Applicants who were new to open source felt very intimidated by the list. Some people did not apply because they worried about being too inexperienced.
Outreachy welcomes newcomers to open source. You do not need to have open source experience to apply to Outreachy. Many past Outreachy interns had not made open source contributions before the application period. We encourage you to apply.
We have removed the list of the different types of contributions from the Outreachy initial application. It was only used for statistical purposes. Removing this data collection will help encourage newcomers to apply to Outreachy. We apologize for the impact this data collection had on past applicants.
