Introduction

Hi everyone, my name is Maya, and I recently got accepted for December 2022 to March 2023 Outreachy internship round.

I’m a User Experienced Researcher and Designer from Nigeria who loves creating practical digital products utilizing in-depth and effective research methods to understand better the users’ pains, frustrations, and excitement.

On the 22nd of November 2022, I got accepted as an Intern with Oppia for the December to March Outreachy Internship Round.

I would love to describe the Oppia project briefly before going into detail about my core values and what motivated me to apply for Outreachy and pick this project.

Oppia is a free supplementary platform primarily made to provide underprivileged kids with access to engaging, high-quality education. This online learning platform aims to provide access to high-quality education and educate the underserved, disadvantaged, and marginalized kids with little to no access to high-quality education.

My Core Values

My core values are Contribution, Curiosity, Challenge and Growth. These principles allowed me to define my goals and objectives better and choose the most effective ways to reach them.

Contribution

I prioritize giving back to the community and assisting everyone, regardless of who they are. I also wanted to make a change to my community by creating a place where young students could receive a free, high-quality education, which I wasn’t fortunate enough to receive when I was younger.

Curiosity

Everyone who knows Maya knows my insatiable curiosity and willingness to invest time in gaining a deeper understanding of anything that piques my interest.

Growth

Growth is another thing I hold in high regard and has aided me throughout my entire journey. I went from being a tech novice to someone who knows what she wants and how to best use her abilities to benefit herself and the community.

Challenge

Last but not least, I value challenging myself. It helps me comprehend my limitations, my growth potential, and the best ways to understand myself better.

Why did I apply for the Program?

Outreachy is a three-month paid and remote internship program conducted twice a year from May to August and December to March. It provides internships to people subject to systemic bias and impacted by underrepresentation in the technical industry where they are living.

My motivation behind the application

The first time I heard the word “Open Source” was from my big sister. I didn’t initially seem to understand what she was saying when she talked about it, but I knew it was something I would love to be a part of and contribute to, so I started researching it. Fortunately, she told me about Outreachy. Because I had a strong desire to work and learn in a community with people of different colors, ideologies, and orientations, I took my time to read up on it and applied in October 2022.

My enthusiasm to work as a User Experience Designer and Researcher in an Open Source community was another source of motivation for me. Since my tech career, I have been working on personal projects, but I wanted to know how it feels to work on actual projects.

How does it function? Will I have the opportunity to collaborate with experts in the field? What’s it like to work remotely as a techie? All of these inquiries persisted, but I knew that starting with it would be the most incredible way to experience and learn how it operates.

Why Oppia Project?

I chose this project because of my previous educational experience. I’ve been there before; I know what it’s like to be an underserved child whose family couldn’t afford a high-quality education. Only wealthy and middle-class families in the neighbourhood where I grew up could afford to provide their kids with a quality education; my sister and I were not in that privileged a situation simply because our parents couldn’t afford it, which had a significant impact on us.

Armed with this background and realization, I was aware that this was my best chance to prevent other children from going through what I did, as well as my best opportunity to give back to the community by assisting underprivileged and underrepresented children in my neighbourhood to access high-quality education despite their finances.

Additionally, the Oppia project caught my interest because I have not had the opportunity to be a part of any program that aims to educate children and conduct research with children. Unsurprisingly, the Oppia project gave me the fantastic privilege of using comprehensive and excellent research techniques to explore the world of children.

My experience as an Outreachy Intern in a week at Oppia.

Introduction