Scholarship administration SOP

This page is intended to provide insight as to how we manage the Fedora Scholarship.

For administrators

Administrative timeline

Before applications open

1. Make sure the scholarship AT fedoraproject DOT org alias points to you. This can be done by asking the prior administrator to file a Fedora Infrastructure ticket.
2. Update this page to reflect any changes in procedure you wish to implement for this round of the scholarship.
3. Update the Scholarship terms to reflect any changes in procedure you wish to implement, along with relevant dates (in particular, the open/close dates for application submissions). In case of any substantive changes, be sure to run them by Red Hat legal.
4. Update the Scholarship page to reflect the dates for the new cycle along with any procedural changes that affect the content on that page.
5. Publicize via Fedora channels to encourage people to apply. See #Marketing for ideas.

When applications open

1. Edit the Scholarship page to reflect that the application period is open.
2. Publicize via Fedora channels to encourage people to apply. See #Marketing for ideas.
3. Nominate people for the selection committee and ask if they would be willing to serve.

Once applications close

1. Edit the Scholarship wiki page to reflect that the application period for this cycle is over.
2. Select the final selection committee from among the eligible nominees (selection committee nominees serving as references for an application cycle are not eligible to serve on the committee for that cycle).
3. Select the final applicants (screen applications for quality and pass them on to the selection committee).
4. Email the references of the final applicants asking them to send their thoughts to the selection committee.
5. Guide the selection committee through the process of selecting a winner.
6. Begin discussions with Red Hat PR about publicizing the scholarship winner (start these discussions before the winner has been selected).

Once a winner is selected

1. Interview the winner. This can be done via IRC; see Scholarship#Previous recipients for interview examples.
2. Publicize the results via Fedora channels. See #Marketing for ideas, and #Award article intro text for a template for informal (non-press-release)
3. Work with Red Hat PR to publicize the result via Red Hat press channels.
4. Take care of the financial logistics behind transferring scholarship funds to the school the winner will be attending.
5. Convene a follow-up meeting with the selection committee and any other interested attendees from the Fedora community in order to think about ways to improve the scholarship program for the next cycle.
6. Contact the infrastructure team to give the winner the Fedora Scholar badge.
7. Edit this page to reset the instructions for the administrator of the next cycle. If you will not be administering the next cycle, find your successor and hold a handoff meeting.

Marketing

The marketing of the Fedora Scholarship has taken several forms in the past, including:

• Blogging (to Fedora Planet) - see sample 2010 scholarship application period opening announcement post to Fedora Planet and 2010 announcement of the winner
• An article on http://opensource.com/education - see the 2010 article
• Fedora mailing lists - in 2010, this was sent to the announce list.
• General news articles that came from the above
• Mentions during speeches at Linux events
• A Red Hat press release, see below.

Announcement press release

The Fedora Project, a Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT) sponsored and community-supported open source collaboration, announces the INSERT YEAR HERE opening of the Fedora Scholarship program recognizing college and university-bound students across the globe for their contributions to free software and the Fedora Project.

The Fedora Scholarship program furthers Red Hat and the Fedora Project's commitment to helping develop and foster up and coming talent in the open source software field. Applicants will be evaluated on criteria including the quality of contributions made to Fedora and other free software projects, references provided by Fedora community members, the amount of time the applicant has been contributing to Fedora and the overall quality of the application. Recipients will receive a scholarship to be applied toward tuition for the student's college or university education. In addition, the recipient will receive funding for travel and lodging at the Fedora User and Developer Conference (FUDCon) nearest to their location for each year of the scholarship.

"Free and open source software is a major disruptive technology, and provides boundless possibilities for developing technology skills. The Fedora community recognizes the importance of exposing technology enthusiasts at an early age to the possibilities of free and open source software, and working in an innovative community effort like Fedora is the best way to develop and hone these skills," said Paul Frields, Fedora Project leader at Red Hat. "We hope the Fedora Scholarship serves as a catalyst for younger generations to become involved in open source projects, and continue the positive momentum behind not only Fedora, but all free and open source software."

The YEAR application window opens DATE and will close DATE. For more information on the Fedora Scholarship or to apply, visit https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship.

For more news about Red Hat, visit www.redhat.com. For more news, more often, visit www.press.redhat.com.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading open source solutions provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with over 50 satellite offices spanning the globe. CIOs have ranked Red Hat first for value in Enterprise Software for four consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value study. Red Hat provides high-quality, affordable technology with its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with applications, management and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com. Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to the integration of acquisitions; the ability of the Company to effectively compete; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company's growth and international operations; adverse results in litigation; and changes in and a dependence on key personnel, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission's Web site at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release.

LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT® and JBOSS® are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. and its subsidiaries in the US and other countries.

Award press release

The Fedora Project, a Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT) sponsored and community-supported open source collaboration, today announced that WINNER is the recipient of the YEAR Fedora Scholarship, a program now in its NUMBERth year. The Fedora Scholarship program recognizes college and university-bound students across the globe for their contributions to free software and the Fedora Project. WINNER was selected from an impressive applicant pool and plans to attend COLLEGE this fall and major in MAJOR.

Fedora and Red Hat are committed to helping future talent in the technology and computer science field gain hands-on experience with open source software. The Fedora Scholarship serves as a way to enable up-and-coming contributors to work within free and open source software communities throughout their college years and beyond. As a Fedora contributor, 1-2 sentences about the contributions of the scholarship winner to Fedora.

"We are very pleased to be awarding the Fedora Scholarship once again this year," said Paul Frields, Fedora Project Leader at Red Hat. "With this scholarship, Fedora and Red Hat hope to continue to foster strong interest in free and open source software across the the next generation of engineers. We thank WINNER for his/her numerous contributions to the Fedora Project and look forward to his/her work with the Fedora community in the future."

Fedora Scholarship applicants are evaluated on criteria including the quality of contributions made to Fedora and other free software projects, references provided by Fedora community members, the amount of time the applicant has been contributing to Fedora and the overall quality of the application. Recipients are awarded a scholarship to be applied toward tuition for the student's college or university education. Fedora Scholarship winners also receive funding for travel and lodging at the Fedora User and Developer Conference (FUDCon) nearest to their location for each year of the scholarship.

Paragraph largely based on QUOTE from WINNER

The NEXT YEAR application window will open in fall NEXT YEAR. For more information, visit https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship.

For more information about the Fedora Project, visit www.fedoraproject.org. For more news about Red Hat, visit www.redhat.com. For more news, more often, visit www.press.redhat.com. About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading open source solutions provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with over 65 offices spanning the globe. CIOs ranked Red Hat as one of the top vendors delivering value in Enterprise Software for five consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value survey. Red Hat provides high-quality, affordable technology with its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with applications, management and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including JBoss Enterprise Middleware. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com. Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to delays or reductions in information technology spending, the integration of acquisitions and the ability to market successfully acquired technologies and products; the ability of the Company to effectively compete; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; the ability to deliver and stimulate demand for new products and technological innovations on a timely basis; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company's growth and international operations; fluctuations in exchange rates; adverse results in litigation; and changes in and a dependence on key personnel, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release.

Award article intro text

Proponents of getting students involved as contributors in open source projects often cite the benefits of having a portfolio and a stellar network of references for job or even school applications. What some don't know is that there are scholarships specifically geared towards open source contributors - and that, for those who want to encourage more young people to get involved in FOSS, these scholarships are quite easy to set up and administer.

The Fedora Scholarship program, sponsored by Red Hat, recognizes one high school senior per year for contributions to the Fedora Project and free software/content in general. With a selection process that looks at the student's contributions to Fedora and other free software projects and uses members of the Fedora community as references, it's a little different from most scholarships you might be used to seeing. In addition to $2,000 USD for each of 4 years of an undergraduate education in any field of the recipient's choice, the scholarship includes 4 years of annual all-expenses-paid trips to the nearest FUDCon, the Fedora community's main gathering of contributors, which happens once per year in different parts of the world.

The winner of the 2010 Fedora Scholarship is Ian Weller, a student from Salina, Kansas who first got involved with Fedora as a software packager during his sophomore year of high school. "When I was browsing http://fedoraproject.org when I was installing FC6, it talked about how you could contribute to Fedora," Weller explains. "I think some of the reasons it gave were stuff like "it's good to give back!" and "you won't have to tell future employers what you did, you can tell them to google your name!" and other cheesy marketing stuff. But it worked... I think what led me to the Fedora project was that I was actively using it and it was the first thing I knew I could contribute back to." More of Ian Weller's story is available at his Fedora Scholarship recipient interview. "It's hard to understand something until it becomes a part of you," says Weller. "And free software is definitely a part of who I am now. I don't think I could go back."

For those interested in replicating the scholarship for their own projects, there's a set of instructions on how to duplicate the scholarship, since part of the intent of the Fedora Scholarship is to encourage other projects and interested individuals to start their own. Working out financial details is easy; most colleges and universities accept deposits from third parties directly into a student's account, and the financial office of the school can tell you how this works. This way, the full amount of the scholarship goes towards offsetting tuition and expenses and the student never has to deal with tax implications of the award. Different approaches to scholarship design and administration are also out there; for instance, Emma Jane Hogbin has published instructions on how to recreate her scholarship for female students who have demonstrated creative uses of technology, which emphasizes a concrete, citable recognition of the student's accomplishments over a specific dollar amount.

What other scholarships for open source contributors do you know of? Have you ever considered starting one of your own? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Template letters

General informational inquiry response

Thank you for inquiring about the Fedora scholarship.

Some frequently asked questions:

Q: Where can I find out more about the scholarship?

A: For general information about the scholarship, please see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship.

Q: How are recipients selected?

A: For selection criteria, see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship#Selection_Criteria.

Q: Can you send me an application?

A: For information on how to apply, see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship#How_to_apply. Our application process is entirely digital, and all the materials needed are available on the website.

If your question was not covered by the above information, or if your email was an application submission, you will receive an email response shortly (within 3 business days).

Incomplete application letter

Thanks for your application to the Fedora Scholarship. We are missing the following pieces of your application:

• Name
• Age
• Fedora Account System username
• Personal statement (in acceptable format, see below)
• References from within the Fedora project
• Resume in .txt, .pdf, or Open Office format; documents in other formats will not be considered. In particular, we do not accept documents in the proprietary .docx and .doc formats.

Please see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship#How_to_apply for more details.

Application receipt confirmation

Thanks for your application to the Fedora Scholarship - your application has been received and is complete. See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship#Timeline for the remainder of the dates in this Scholarship cycle (the next date is April 5, the date by which the scholarship recipient will be privately notified).

Best of luck with the remainder of your studies this year, and we'll see you in Fedora-land!

Recruiting the selection committee

Greetings,

You are receiving this email because we would like to ask you to be part of the selection committee candidate pool for this year's Fedora Scholarship. More information on the scholarship is available on the Scholarship page (https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship). This year's selection timeline with the committee's responsibilities can be found on the main Scholarship page, https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship#Timeline.

Those of you who've participated in the scholarship committee process in the past will notice a difference between this year and last year - we're designating a committee candidate *pool* instead of a committee before the application deadline, and once the application deadline has passed the final committee will be chosen from the members of that pool who are not serving as references to the applicants under consideration. Basically, what this means is that for any given year, you can be a selection committee member, or you can be an applicant's reference, but you can't be both.

The responsibilities are pretty lightweight (read and comment on applications), and there's no obligation to participate - if you don't respond to this email, we'll assume you're not interested and plan accordingly - if you are interested, just add your name to the list at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship_administration_SOP#Selection_committee_candidate_pool. If you know someone else who you think would be a good selection committee member, please let me know.

Giving applications to the selection committee

Greetings,

You are receiving this email because you've offered to be on the selection committee for this year's Fedora Scholarship, and you were not chosen as a reference by any of the applicants. That means you have the responsibility of picking this year's scholarship winner. Congratulations!

The application window for this year closed on DATE. The applications and references for each candidate are attached. As you read these applications, please keep the selection criteria in mind. I've also asked each of the references listed by the applicants to send their brief thoughts on the candidates to you by the start of next week, so those should be coming in shortly.

The next deadlines coming up:

(Copy-paste the remainder of the timeline here).

Asking references for comments

Hello!

You're getting this email because you were listed as a reference for the Fedora Scholarship (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship) by NAME.

If you could take a few minutes between now and DATE and reply to this email with a paragraph or two (or longer, if you'd like) on your impressions of the candidate and the contributions they've made to the Fedora Project and free software/content in general, this would aid the selection committee (copied) in their decision.

Thank you,

For the selection committee

This section is under construction.

Selection committee timeline

• February 19, 2010 -- final committee membership is determined.
• by March 12, 2010 -- Each member of the selection committee reviews the applications, weighs the merits of each along with the criteria, and writes a few paragraphs to the rest of the committee indicating their thinking.
• by March 19, 2010 -- discussion continues, and if we have not reached a consensus by email, a conference call will be set up in order to make a final decision.
• April 5, 2010 -- according to the Terms and Conditions, the recipient will be notified by the Scholarship administrator by this date (no action needed by committee members).
• May 5, 2010 -- by this date, a postmortem will be conducted with ideas on improvements to this program for the next year, including marketing, selection criteria, the selection process itself, etc.

Selection committee membership

• We recommend a selection committee of between 4-8 people. A smaller committee has less diversity of viewpoint; a larger committee is difficult for discussion and consensus-building in a short timeframe.
• Selected by the Scholarship administrator.
• Entirely composed of Fedora community members.
• In the past, each committee has had at least one community member with ties to academia (professor, etc).
• All previous recipients of the Fedora Scholarship have the option to serve on the selection committee.
• May not be serving as a reference for any of the scholarship candidates the same year they are members of the selection committee.

Ideas for next round

If you have an idea, please add it here.

Mailing list

One thing I'm thinking about is starting a mailing list for discussion/questions on the scholarship, because there's no place for people to talk about it right now (well... the talk page, but we don't really use that in Fedoraland). Mel Chua 10:30, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Application submission via check-in

Another thing I'm thinking about - not for this round, though - is having contributors submit their applications via git checkin, which I think is a perfectly reasonable barrier to entry if we want Fedora contributors anyway (if you're an active participant in Fedora, you should at least know what git is and be able to find someone to walk you through how to use it, regardless of what type of contributor you are). Mel Chua 10:30, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

• • I'm not sure that this is possible in a way that keeps applications private, but even if it were, I can't help but feel that this would be an artificial barrier to application that has less to do our precise selection criteria. If this is more of a response to a spam or signal-to-noise issue, I'm sure we can think of other solutions though. Ricky Zhou 19:15, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
  • Agreed... it's a signal-to-noise thing. If we find other ways to reduce that, our current email app process is fine.

Keep this process and the scholarship amount

We should continue to offer the scholarship in its current amount, with the current selection process, for the foreseeable future - it's a good way to say thank you. Mel Chua 13:58, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Get unlisted from scholarships.com

We've gotten nothing but unwanted noise from scholarships.com, and the applicants we want are those already involved with Fedora (and therefore already paying attention to internal Fedora channels). For the 2011 cycle, we should make sure we are not listed on scholarships.com, and instead target our efforts more directly to young people already involved in the community, making particularly sure that we reach out to all our geos. Mel Chua 17:26, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

We should downscale publicity of this scholarship specifically to existing Fedora communication channels. (No "apply for this scholarship" press release, no listing on scholarships.com.) Those who should apply already, by definition, watch those channels.Mel Chua 13:58, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Be a model and encourage other groups to offer FOSS scholarships

We should also consider a separate, non-Fedora "scholarships in open source" publicity initiative - not offer additional scholarships ourselves, but encourage, highlight, and create a space for others to aggregate college scholarships geared towards or appropriate for open source contributors, and resources to help make one's application for those scholarships (ideally offered by a wide range of organizations, some with recognizable names). Things like "make a press release on the Fedora Scholarship winner" fall into this category - but generally speaking, the atmosphere to create is "open source == educational opportunity" in a way people like my parents would understand. Mel Chua 13:58, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Document the payment process

In case Max gets hit by a raptor. I'm guessing the process looks like this:

1. Scholarship administrator pings Person In RHT Who Is Providing Budget For The Scholarship, aka "Budgetperson" saying "this student is the winner, and this is the school they are attending. By the way, remember the prior 3 winners of the scholarship as well."
2. Budgetperson goes "thank you, Scholarship administrator; I will handle it from here." Scholarship administrator's work is done.
3. Budget person finds contact information for the payment office of the school for the most recent winner, calls them and explains the Scholarship, and inquires how/where to send check. Writes details down on Scholarship wiki page (or internal page if needed) for further reference.
4. Budget person sends checks for all 4 schools (to the 4 prior Scholarship winners), using the contact information that now exists and is findable for all 4 schools and students. Budget person also does whatever internal RHT accounting is needed for this. Note that this step usually occurs during RHT's Q2 or Q3, since schools occasionally want to handle finances during the actual school year in question.
5. Budget person marks "pay Scholarship" action item as done on the Scholarship SOP wiki page (https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship_administration_SOP) and notifies the 4 students and the Scholarship administrator that this is complete.

Mel Chua 17:30, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Have the next year's scholarship administered by a prior scholarship winner

This may be an audacious idea, but: if you win the Scholarship, you're given the option to learn how to administer it the next year. (If the winner declines this option, anyone in the Fedora community who is ineligible for the Scholarship - in other words, past high school - can administer it.)

Administering the scholarship is a good experience to have, seeing how these programs work behind the scenes - good resume bulletpoint, etc. Also, giving the prior scholarship winner this option may be a good way to keep them engaged with the community during the first crucial year of "I'm in college!" phase-change.

Things to fix for this round

We may not be able to do everything on this list, but we'll try.

Students from conscription countries not eligible

• The way the Terms and Conditions are worded at the moment disqualifies most contributors from countries that have conscription. Usually these mandatory services (army, community service) take place between high school and university so there currently is no way for contributors that are affected to fulfill 2 (i) and 2 (iii) of the Scholarship terms at the same time. Also see the Map of countries that are affected (all the red ones). --Heffer 10:54, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Fixed; the Terms and Conditions now allow students "enrolled as a high school or secondary school student (or home-schooled student) during the Program Application Term, or [who] have graduated with a high school or secondary school diploma within two (2) years of the start of the Program Application Term." Thanks for calling out this bug! Mel Chua 05:55, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

Further explanation: The new T&C allows students from transcription countries to apply during their year of service. You still apply the year immediately before you go to university, but you don't have to be enrolled in secondary school when you apply so long as you've graduated from it within the last 2 years. Mel Chua 05:58, 17 December 2009 (UTC)