Outreachy Blog 1 - Introducing myself
Tags: outreachy, opensource
Published: 2024-06-04 10:21:17

Hello Everyone!

Thanks in advance for your interest to read about me. Today, I would be telling you a little bit about myself and how I got selected for the Outreachy'24 Internship cohort.

My name is Christian Chima Okeke, an Outreachy Intern with OpenStack Manila. I am a degree holder with B.Eng Electronic Engineering and strongly making a career switch to become a Software Engineer.I am also a trained Network Engineer.My interest are on Product Design, Frontend and Backend Development, as well as making contributions to OpenSource Projects.

I got to know about Outreachy sometime last year and joined the OpenStack Manila Project. Though, I was not selected in my first and second attempt but I never stopped contributing to Manila. So, in this cohort, I am accepted to intern with OpenStack on the Project "Implement new features in the OpenStack Manila Dashboard". My mentor(s) are Goutham Pacha Ravi and Carlos da Silva and Ashley Rodriguez.

## What is Outreachy

Outreachy provides paid 3-month internships for OpenSource and OpenScience for the under-represented in the community. Within these 3-month internship period, interns are paid a stipend of $7,000 and work on select projects according to their skillsets. Outreachy internships run twice in the year between May to August or December to March. 

## How did I apply to Outreachy
Last year, I applied to Outreachy but unfortunately I was not accepted. I did not relent though but kept connected to the Community which I have come to Love. I decided that the idea is to get involved and committed for a long-term to OpenSource so I used the period to hone my skills further. I also, was following the progress of interns on the twitter and community channels and by the next application, I was more prepared to apply again. Coincidentally, OpenStack Manila was selected to participate again in this cohort and I immediately jumped right in because this is the community I have come to identify with. Finally, on 3rd May, 2024, I received the good news that I have been selected to participate in this cohort. I could not contain my join and I immediately reached out to my Mentors, Goutham and Carlos da Silva who have been providing me all guides throughout the contribution phase. Indeed, I am very grateful to them both.

## A short brief about OpenStack Manila
The OpenStack Shared File Systems service (manila) provides coordinated access to shared or distributed file systems. The method in which the share is provisioned and consumed is determined by the Shared File Systems driver, or drivers in the case of a multi-backend configuration. There are a variety of drivers that support NFS, CIFS, HDFS, GlusterFS, CEPHFS, MAPRFS and other protocols as well.

The Shared File Systems API and scheduler services typically run on the controller nodes. Depending upon the drivers used, the share service can run on controllers, compute nodes, or storage nodes.

## My core values
**Dedication** - I was able to succeed as a result of my doggedness and dedication to whatever goal I set to achieve.

**Curiosity** - I value curiosity, the desire to learn or know about what interests me drives me to achieve my goal.

**Growth** - I think investing a considerable amount of time and energy in one's personal development is needed for one's growth.

**Compassion** - I value compassion, it drives our commitment to serve others with empathy and respect.

Thanks for reading