My experience up-to now as a GSOC mentor with Xfce

What is Google Summer of Code ?

The Google Summer of Code, often abbreviated to GSOC, is an international annual program in which Google awards stipends to students who successfully complete a free and open-source software coding project during the summer.

What is Xfce ?

Xfce or XFCE is a top most liked, free and open-source desktop environment for Unix-like operating systems with aims to be fast and lightweight while still being visually appealing and easy to use.

How I got into it

For the first time in 2021, xfce submitted to be a hosting organization for GSOC. Alexander Schwinn and Yousuf Philips provide me this amazing opportunity to mentor the project 'Sample Plugin for xfce panel in all GOI supported languages'. I was very excited for it from the starting as I love to work with highly motivated students, helping them to learn. I always considered it as a valuable activity.

Journey up-to now.

In the starting I was very nervous with the things as it is my first time as a mentor in GSOC, Yousuf and Alex always helped and Guided me at every stage. Last month I faced a lot other issues because of the pandemic but some how manage to get back.

After Xfce successfully securing 3 slots (where new organizations only get 1 or 2) I got a slot to mentor Vishal Sharma. Vishal is a highly motivated and curious guy who always try to learn max from the things.

Approach as a mentor

We started working on the project during the community bonding period because there were a couple of things we need to test before getting to the actual feature implementation. We talked on telegram (and sometime on whatsapp) 4-5 days per week and also I gave home detailed feedback for his work. Overall we were in a friendly working relationship and Vishal will probably continue as a member of Xfce community in future.

My Takeaway from the experiences up-to now.

I'm enjoying my interaction this year, it was smooth at the beginning and getting even better. Student did an excellent job and I'm also very happy with the way things work here.