Our awesome community recently became a bit more awesome. Drupal was accepted into Google's Summer of Code 2014! Student applications started March 10th and are open until March 21st. It's not too late to become a student, mentor, or submit a project idea. Not available to join the GSoC fun...maybe you can send an email to your alumni university mailing list?

Did you know Drupal recently participated in Google's Code-In contest for high school students aged 13-17 and they contributed over a hundred tasks? For example, did you see the Drupal 8 Theme Cheat Sheet @ https://drupal.org/node/2145023 (desktop background version @ http://goo.gl/zsQOf1) or the Drupal 8 Hello World module video @ http://youtu.be/N0IFTFQ9VTI ? Maybe you recently utilized DrupalLadder.org to find content updated for Drupal 8 by GCI students and watched the video on how to contribute back to the ladder @ http://drupalladder.org/content/get-involved ? Most importantly it is exciting to note that Drupal gained several Drupal 8 core contributors under the age of 18.

This is a special year as it is the 10th anniversary of Summer of Code and our community is excited to engage in the fun. In an initiative to spark participation, we contacted every single one of Drupal's alumni students along with the mentors of past GSoCs to contribute in the 2014 festivities. As a result Drupal organized almost fifty project ideas from mentors and companies around the world. We filtered the list into just under thirty compelling ideas and submitted a solid application. We're still welcoming project ideas, but we need dedicated mentors to help write applications with students and of course work with them all summer.

How to be a Drupal GSoC student in 10 Steps

1. Register an account @ https://drupal.org
2. Join Drupal's group for Summer of Code @ https://groups.drupal.org/google-summer-code
3. Find a project on our ideas page @ https://groups.drupal.org/node/407793
   • Add your name as an interested student to project idea
4. Contact mentors listed on project idea via drupal.org contact page
   • If you don't hear back after 48 hours, try creating an issue in issue queue for project and contact org/mentor https://groups.drupal.org/node/411293
     admins (Slurpee, Slashrsm, Varunity)
   • Office hours are listed below if you still can’t contact a mentor or admin
5. Complete "Drupal Ladder for GSoC Students" @ http://drupalladder.org/ladders
   • Completing additional ladders will help your application!
6. Utilize drupalmentoring.org to find issues to work on with mentors willing to help
7. Test and reroll patches in issue queue
8. Write a patch that is contributed into Drupal 8 (making you a “core contributor”)
9. Become a maintainer of the project you're planning to work on by contributing code/patches/tests/documentation
10. Hangout in #drupal-google @Freenode helping other students

10 tips for writing student applications

1. Treat this as a real job, would any software company actually pay you to work on this project all summer?
2. Demonstrate your ability to contribute to Drupal and that you can immediately start producing code from day one of GSoC
3. Create a complete project plan broken down by every week of GSoC
4. Document and diagram the workflow of user experience
5. Create wireframes/mockups of UI and UX (http://codecondo.com/free-wireframe-tools/)
6. Research and contact initiatives looking to accomplish related tasks
7. Plan out your “support contract”, do you plan to stay in the Drupal community after GSoC (example, how long will you support/update your code for the community after GSoC?)
8. Explain your workflow for project, time, and task management (a tool such a Basecamp or Trello?)
9. Describe your methods, tools, and frequency of communication with mentor for collaboration in a virtual environment (g+ hangout twice per week?)
10. Request mentors and helpers in #drupal-google to review application via Google Drive with comments enabled

10 tips for mentors to help students write applications

1. List a project on our ideas page @ https://groups.drupal.org/node/407793
2. Review the “Drupal Ladder for GSoC Students” to learn student prerequisites
3. Update any of the Drupal Ladders to help students learn faster
4. Respond to interested students that contact you via drupal.org contact page
   • Please respond within 48 hours
5. Test and review patches from students
6. Facilitate contact with discussion between student and module maintainer of projects of interested student
7. Create a project plan and timeline that student agrees on with specific deliverables, understanding you may need to fail student at midterm or final
8. Review Google/Melange’s guide on being a mentor (non-Drupal stuff) @ http://en.flossmanuals.net/gsocmentoring/
9. Contact Drupal’s org admins (Slurpee, Slashrsm, Varunity) if you have any questions
10. Hangout in #drupal-google answering student questions

Drupal’s GSoC Office Hours (help in real time!)

Mentors are available on IRC in #drupal-google @Freenode thrice each weekday for one hour from March 10th until March 21st. Join us in real time at scheduled times below to chat with mentors in real time to ask questions, request application reviews, or simply hangout.

• Asia/Australia 04:00 - 05:00 UTC (IST 09:30-10:30)
• Europe 13:00 - 14:00 UTC (CET 14:00-15:00)
• Americas 18:00 - 19:00 UTC (PDT 11:00-12:00)

Contributing to Drupal

Did you know many successful students started with zero Drupal experience prior to GSoC? If new to Drupal and willing to contribute, come to participate in core contribution mentoring. It helps anyone without any experience to get started with Drupal contribution development. Google wants to see students contributing to organizations prior to the starting of their GSoC project and this is a chance to demonstrate your skills. Office hours provide a chance for students that have problems with their patches or can't find issues to work on to seek guidance. Create an account at http://drupalmentoring.org before you participate in core mentoring. Drupal core contribution office hours are Tuesdays, 02:00 - 04:00 UTC AND Wednesdays, 16:00 - 18:00 UTC. If you need help outside of office hours, join #drupal-contribute to chat with the community members willing to assist 24/7.

Details about core mentoring office hours @https://drupal.org/core-office-hours and http://drupalmentoring.org. More information about contributing to Drupal @ http://drupal.org/new-contributors and http://drupal.org/novice.

Final notes from Google to Students

We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications from students to participate in Google Summer of Code 2014. Please check out the FAQs [1], timeline [2], and student manual [3] if you are unfamiliar with the process. You can also read the Melange manual if you need help with Melange [4]. The deadline to apply is 21 March at 19:00 UTC [5]. Late proposals will not be accepted for any reason.

[1] - http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gso...
[2] - http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/events/google/gsoc2014
[3] - http://en.flossmanuals.net/GSoCstudentguide/
[4] - http://en.flossmanuals.net/melange/students-students-application-phase/
[5] - http://goo.gl/1ZefN4

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