Learning Equality is a Mentoring Organization for the Google Summer of Code 2022

Radina Matic
Learning Equality
Published in
4 min readMar 23, 2022

Learning Equality is thrilled to have been selected to participate in the Google Summer of Code 2022. This will be our third time as a mentoring organization helping beginner contributors start working on open source software projects. In this blog post, Radina Matic, Learning Equality’s Accessibility & QA Lead, talks about her own experience as a former GSoC student developer, the importance of community contributions to Learning Equality, and how to get involved in this year’s projects.

Google Summer of Code and Learning Equality logos

The Value of Giving Back Through Mentorship

Back in 2015, I was a first-year grad student looking for opportunities to put my academic knowledge of web accessibility into practice. I had heard of the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) internship program, and even though I had some prior experience contributing to the GNOME open source project, it was mostly on documentation and localization tasks, and venturing into real software and web development felt somewhat intimidating.

Many of us remember what it was like to be new to the field, often struggling with impostor syndrome. Despite knowing that we would have something to contribute, we were still lacking the experience to assert ourselves. Some luckier ones had help and support along the way. They found bridges that allowed them to learn both the technical secrets of the trade, as well as navigate the sometimes not-so-clear-waters of online communities. As a result, they grew in confidence, were proud of their own contributions, and realized it was time to give back.

That’s exactly my story with Learning Equality: I continued working with the organization after the GSoC internship was over and am still here, seven years and counting.

Welcoming new contributors has always been important to Learning Equality. The organization is based out of the University of California San Diego campus and, over the years, it created strong ties to UCSD CompSci and CogSci departments, from where it often accepted interns. In addition, working closely with and building community is a part of Learning Equality’s DNA since its inception, 8 years ago. So needless to say, welcoming documentation contributors within the Google Season of Docs program for the past three years was an absolute delight for us. People like Danielle Vansia, Stephanie Dixon, Cindy Tran, and Ian Cowley worked on improving various aspects of the documentation for products within the Kolibri ecosystem. For those unfamiliar, Kolibri is Learning Equality’s adaptable end-to-end suite of open tools, openly licensed learning resources, and support materials designed for teaching and learning with technology but without requiring the Internet.

Learners gather around a table. They are using tablets loaded with the Kolibri software for learning.
Learners in Kenya working on Kolibri (photo credit: Lewa Wildlife Conservancy)

GSoC Project Ideas for 2022

Let’s get back to the topic of GSoC and open source code contributions to Kolibri, so that we can continue improving our offline-first edtech offering to support learning across the world!

Keep in mind that this year the eligibility criteria for GSoC have changed: Anyone new to the open source software projects can apply to participate, it’s no longer necessary to be enrolled in a formal academic institution.

This year Learning Equality is proposing five exciting project ideas for improving Kolibri during a period of 3 to 6 months. We invite you to read more about the background, needs, and requirements in our project ideas document:

If you are interested to know more about these projects, send us an email at gsoc@learningequality.org, and we’ll reply with an invite to the gsoc-2022 channel set up in Learning Equality’s Slack workspace!

We also have a detailed guideline document for preparing the application proposal for GSoC to help new contributors get started and familiarize themselves with our development process before applying.

Guideline document for preparing the application proposal for GSoC

Applications for contributors will be accepted from April 4 to April 19, 2022.

Let me wrap up with a quote from Vivek Agrawal, who successfully completed his GSoC internship with Learning Equality last year, and continues to work with our team part-time while finishing his degree. Be sure to read his full GSoC story here!

“Around three months back, when I started with my Google Summer of Code 2021 journey, I had almost zero practical experience with backend development. These three months of work with Learning Equality’s Kolibri platform has made me a very confident backend developer.

When I look back and see myself, I feel proud :)”

Be part of our community!

There are many other ways in which you too can help make quality educational materials and digital tools accessible by everyone:

You can also watch for #KolibriFly on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and stay in the loop with Learning Equality by subscribing for monthly updates here.

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Published in Learning Equality

Learning Equality is committed to enabling every person in the world to realize their right to a quality education by enabling teaching and learning with technology, without the Internet.

Written by Radina Matic

Accessibility & QA Lead at Learning Equality. Tech enthusiast, Jill-of-all-trades, science museums and photography buff, permanently searching new challenges.

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