This is my first blog in the series where I talk about my experience as an intern at Outreachy, and working with the Moja Global community! I’m more than excited to share how things go as i move along, and I hope to continue writing these blogs weekly.

In this blog, I will be talking about myself and the core values that helped me throughout the journey.

Who Am I?

Hello :). I am Ankita Sharma, currently pursuing B.Tech in Electronics and Communication from International Institute of Information Technology, Naya Raipur, India. During my initial years of graduation, I realized my interest in Computer Science and development. My motivation to see how real-life development works in an organization led me explore open source development.

My Open Source Journey

Honestly, I was very eager to contribute to open source but sometimes ( almost everytime I would say :( ) it looks really overwhelming. There are lots of open issues and a lot of source code that is hard for me to understand at first. But, I was always interested in working hard to get comfortable and create an impact. Plus the open source community members were always welcoming throughtout the journey which always motivated me to learn and keep contributing, so thanks to them :).

Outreachy

I have been accepted as an Outreachy Intern for Moja Global organization for the project “Research data sources for carbon sequestration in forests” under the guidance of Andrew O’Reilly-Nugent and Harsh Bardhan Mishra.

Talking about my jouney for Outreachy - I came to know about outreachy while searching for open source opportunities. I remember how I eagerly waited for the initial applications to open. While looking at the project lists, I found the moja global organization to be very interesting. Fortunately, my skillset also matched with the project requirements. During my contribution period to Moja Global, I found the community members really helpful and welcoming. After the announcement of outreachy final results, I was on cloud nine :D!. I am really excited to work with Moja Global. Thanks to my senior Kush and my mentors - Andrew and Harsh for their guidance throughout the journey :).

Core values that helped me

The will to Never Give Up!. I always believe the most certain way to suceed is always to try one more time :). After getting a few rejections in some internship programmes. I got frustated and thought of giving up but somehow I encouraged myself to try one more time, everytime :)

And yes, I made it! <3. I am here as a Moja Global Intern in Outreachy. :)

Thanks for reading! See you in the next blog <3