As my internship with Fedora comes to an end, I reflect on my experiences over the past five months.  I began my internship in May, applying to a Community Architect position posted through Red Hat. I was unfamiliar with the Fedora community, but was eager to learn and contribute to the communities. Marie Nordin, the former Fedora Community Action and Impact Coordinator guided me the whole way. She taught me about the passion and enthusiasm the open source community respects within community involvement. 

Marie and I began the internship preparing for the summer’s Fedora Hatch events. We put together promotional content for the Hatches taking place around the globe. Marie guided me through the process of ensure each Hatch was properly promoted. I communicated with the organizers to ensure that the promotional tweets and Community Blog posts were all agreed upon. The Hatches allowed me to acquaint myself with the involved Fedora contributors. This allowed me to feel more confident and comfortable within the community. 

Once the promotional items were set for the Hatches, Marie and I hit the ground running to prepare for the annual Nest with Fedora. We finalized the call for proposals in time to set the event schedule. Once we uploaded the artwork and schedule on Hopin, we were ready for Nest. The live event was invigorating to be a part of. I saw first hand the effort and work it takes to prepare for a live event and ensure it runs smoothly. Although we encountered some hiccups or last minute changes, we were always able to adapt and find a solution. 

During my internship I had the opportunity to spearhead the Fedora Week of Diversity event. I joined Jona Azizaj and Vipul Siddharth to begin constructing ideas for how we wanted to execute the event. Inspired by this year’s Nest with Fedora event, we wanted it to be an interactive event. We decided to host a live event for the community. To build the schedule, we sent out a call for proposals and reached out to individuals involved in DEI open source communities. We finalized our plan and executed the event on Saturday, October 15th.

The event kicked off with the FWD planning team welcoming all participants and introducing the speakers. The first session by Sarah Thorton, “Be A Gender Ally”, was well prepared and executed. Emma Kidney’s session on the Fedora Accessibility Working Group followed next. Emma shared the plan for the group and their goal for the team. The panel discussion was led by Jona Azizaj and involved new and familiar faces to the Fedora community. Our new FCAIC Justin Flory, Kristi Progri, a new face to the community Molly Gallagher, and our former FCAIC Marie Nordin were all involved in the discussion. 

I learned many lessons throughout my internship from understanding the importance of communication, supporting my colleagues, adaptability, and most importantly gaining confidence. I am thankful to Marie for supporting and mentoring me throughout my internship, Jason for entrusting me to join the team, and for the new FCAIC, Justin, for bringing a fresh perspective to my role.