Rails Girls Summer of Code

3 Ways Your Company Can Support Rails Girls Summer of Code 2014

Posted on by Sara

Rails Girls Summer of Code 2013 was a resounding success!

We had over 30 students working on Open Source projects over the summer, most on a full-time basis, sponsored by the community and our company sponsors. A significant amount of those students went on to present at conferences, and meetups, as well as moved onto their own coding projects!

Preparations for this year’s instalment of RGSoC have begun, and we’re looking for companies to support this incredible program in 2014.

This year we have three options for companies to join and support the program as:

  • Sponsors,
  • Coaching companies and/or
  • financially supporting organizers

1. Sponsors

While we are going to open our fundraising campaign as soon as possible, sponsors who sign up early will get a significant amount of exposure, and publicity, since their logo will already be on the website when the hype goes off on Twitter.

Sponsors are listed on the site not only according to the size of their donation, but also their sign up date. Our sponsorship packages will remain the same as they were in 2013, giving you the opportunity to choose your desired package early! Take a look at the packages we are planning to offer here.

Sponsor logos will be listed and linked via the Rails Girls Summer of Code homepage and on the dedicated “Sponsors” page, with a blurb text that you are free to choose.

Other perks of sponsorship include: getting your swag in goody bags which are sent out to our student teams, your logo on students’ slides at conference talks, mentions in our press kit and newsletters, blog posts dedicated to sponsors, lots of tweets and of course love from the community.

Want to be one of our early-bird sponsors? Get in touch with us: summer-of-code@railsgirls.com

2. Coaching companies

Some of last year’s most successful student teams have been supported greatly by local coaching companies, who have given them a place to work in their offices and a pool of coaches to help them. We are looking to formalize this support into an option for interested companies this year.

A great example from 2013 is SoundCloud, who sponsored RGSoC and provided coaching resources for two student teams at their Berlin developer office.

Their developers were put into a coaching pool and alloted a certain amount of time to coach the students. Students presented their work during company meetings, and met with other staff members during lunch breaks. There were a number of other companies who provided similar setups with great success, too.

Some companies have a policy in place that allows developers to work on Open Source, or other beneficial projects, during business hours. If you do, ask your team if they’d be interested in coaching a team of two students onsite.

Please keep in mind that student applications cannot be selected upfront and being backed by a Coaching Company is not a guarantee for them to be accepted:

Student applications will be rated based on the set criteria, and the best ranked applications will be selected. However, you can greatly improve your team’s chances of getting a sponsored seat by helping them prepare an outstanding application.

If you have the ability to be a “Coaching Company” we’d love to hear from you: summer-of-code@railsgirls.com

3. Supporting organizers

A mammoth amount of work goes into organizing Rails Girls Summer of Code, and a vast majority of it is done by volunteers. We would like to provide another paid position for an RGSoC Orga Team Member to dedicate themselves to Summer of Code organizational activities part- or fulltime.

A great example of financially supporting organizers is Travis CI, who support Rails Girls Summer of Code by paying Anika Lindtner to work on the program, through the Travis Foundation.

Another wonderful company is anynines who are supporting Floor Drees to help organize this year’s edition.

The sponsored organizer will have displayed a track record of reliability and honesty, and will be vetted to ensure they will make terrific use of a paid position.

If you are interested in this new initiative, then please get in touch: summer-of-code@railsgirls.com

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