Me and Mentorship
Hi there.. it’s been a while as usual… 😄
Today I would like to talk about mentoring. It’s been a constant in my life. I have been on both sides: mentee and mentor. I can tell you that you learn so much from this exchange.
Being a mentee is a way to learn from an expert or just people who know more than yourself. Those people you truly admire for their work. The mentees don’t even always tell how much they admire their mentors.
On the reverse, being a mentor is a good way to learn how to share your knowledge the best way. You watch the person you’re mentoring grow and make their own decisions, without ever having to ask you for advice in the end, because you’ve given them the tools to find the answers on their own. One day, perhaps, they’ll take the time to thank you, because without even realizing it, you’ve changed their life.
It’s crazy, isn’t it? I love mentoring because it’s a special and unique exchange: you feel close to the other person, because when you’re a mentor, you see a younger version of yourself in your mentee, and the mentee sees you as what they might one day become. I’m sure many people don’t see mentoring exactly the way I do, but it’s an extremely rewarding experience.
Mentoring is a great way to learn, whether you’re the mentee or the mentor. Yes, mentors learn from the experience as well. How can you make sure your mentee has understood what you meant? How can you clearly explain something that seems obvious to you to the person sitting across from you? The mentee’s questions help us discover aspects we had never considered before. There is so much to learn!
Google Summer of Code mentorship
Speaking about mentoring, I’m going to get my hands dirty again and mentor someone for Google Summer of Code (GSoC) for the Django organization this year! 🥳
It will be my first time to mentor for Google Summer of Code, I’m really excited! I will be mentoring Keha Chandrakar with my amazing co-mentor and co-chair of the Website Working Group Saptak Sengupta✨
The project is Unified Dark Mode and UI Consistency for Django’s Issue Tracker, it would be a nice addition for the community.
This project means a lot to me. I have previously contributed to the addition of the dark mode in the Django website. It was my first major contribution to Django! When you start your contribution journey for a huge project like Django, it’s exciting and impressive! I did contribute without any mentor but I definitely had help along the way since the Django community is so welcoming and helpful. I learned a lot through this contribution and now it’s used by so many people. Being Keha’s mentor is a good way for me to give back and help someone else on a topic I know pretty well!
You could be the mentor
I have been part of the Djangonaut Space organization, where we are recruiting people as mentors. This organization and the Django organization are always looking for mentors. If you have already contributed to an open source project related to the Django ecosystem or are maintaining one and you are willing to take the time to help someone in their contribution journey, consider mentoring as an option to get new contributors to your project. Djangonaut Space has multiple cohorts, sign up to the newsletter and mention your interest in mentoring: being a navigator (technical mentor) or a captain (community mentor).
Who knows, this might be your new co-maintainer, your new teammate or your new code reviewer? There are things we can definitely learn on our own and some things you will only learn from someone else.
That’s it for me!