WordPress Contributor Mentorship: 2024 Q1 Cohort Graduates

I am honored to announce that the Second Cohort (2024 Q1) of the WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program has concluded!

The cohort, which had 52 mentees supported by 28 mentors, kicked off on February 19, 2024, and went on for six weeks to formally wrap up on March 29. Out of this group, 44 mentees leveled up their WordPress contribution knowledge and made impactful contributions to the WordPress project.

Please join me in congratulating all our mentees who have graduated from the program!

Kudos to all our mentees for their fantastic contributions in the past six weeks: @acirujano @adarshposimyth @akmelias @alokstha1 @alxrz @ajithrn @andr3ribeiro @alexcu21 @atta98 @buenroger @diannagunn @drysand @eatpaintchic @elsatapia @fatematalks @flexseth @hectorjarquin @hellosatya @jagirbahesh @krishsundaram @krupajnanda @lighthouse79 @lumiblog @mainetenance @matteoenna @matumu @meilani @mujuonly @nonverbla @ohia @quentinldd @ratneshsonar @rcreators @ryoraspp @saqib59 @sandroschutt @sancastiza @shilpamanoj @spencerravago @swethabc9 @teresagobble @vishalmukadam @voboghure @vbaimas

The Mentorship Process

To quickly recap, the contributor mentorship program was envisioned by the WordPress Contributor Working group as a way to bolster the contributor experience of the project. The second cohort aims to build on the success of the pilot cohort to offer a more robust and comprehensive contribution experience to a group of committed and passionate mentees with the help of dedicated and driven mentors.

Our mentorship program took place in a dedicated slack channel in the Make/WordPress Slack for six weeks. For the first two weeks, our mentees were oriented to the program through kick-off session, got to know their mentors, set contribution goals, and learned about the WordPress project through learn-up sessions. On Weeks 3 and 4, our mentees started contributing to the teams of their choice, which continued through Weeks 5 and 6, when they wrapped-up by setting a 30-60-90 day goal and graduated from the program! Many mentees took part in projects where they worked in small groups to make collective contributions. Throughout the process, our mentees also got an inside view of the WordPress 6.5 release process and the WordPress project itself, as many mentees contributed to WordPress Core by joining the release parties.

Achievements from our Program

In six weeks, many of our mentees went out of the way to contribute to WordPress. Compared to our last cohort, we had many more contributions to WordPress, as our mentees not only onboarded to the project, but also spent a bulk of their time contributing. Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of achievements from our cohort members:

Another highlight of this cohort was that six of our graduating mentees were supported by an LGBTQ+ empowerment grant.

Contributions to WordPress 6.5

The biggest win of the program remains to be its impact on WordPress 6.5. To summarize:

• 🛠 10 of our 44 mentees contributed to WordPress 6.5 (@lumiblog @adarshposimyth @lighthouse79 @voboghure @hellosatya @rcreators @mujuonly @matteoenna @krupajnanda @akmelias),including one noteworthy contributor (@lumiblog). 
• 📝 14 of our 28 mentors contributed to WordPress 6.5 (@anandau14 @benjamin_zekavica@webtechpooja @patricia70 @nilovelez @ndiego @devmuhib @onemaggie @kafleg @kirasong @jdy68 @courane01 @tobifjellner @estelaris @OGlekler) with three of them being noteworthy contributors (@benjamin_zekavica @estelaris @OGlekler)
• 🌟 Among our mentors and mentees, our program offered eight (8) first-time core contributors to the project!

Big congratulations and many thanks to all contributors! 

Learning Materials from the Mentorship Program

For folks who are curious about the Mentorship Program, we are sharing some of the learning materials that our mentees used and were created during the program.

Learn WordPress Courses

• Open source basics
• How Decisions Are Made in the WordPress Project
• Community Meeting Etiquette
• Writing in the WordPress Voice
• Basic Principles of Conflict Resolution

Online Workshops on the Project

All videos from the 2024 WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program can be found in this link: https://wordpress.tv/event/february-2024-wordpress-contributor-mentorship-program/
Here are links to individual videos:

• Mentorship Program Onboarding
• Introduction to the WordPress Open Source Project
• GitHub Onboarding for WordPress Contributions
• Anne McCarthy: Introduction to the WordPress Release Process
• Make/Sustainability Team: A Quick Overview
• Support Team Onboarding
• Polyglots team Onboarding
• Polyglots Documentation Onboarding
• BuddyPress Overview
• Community Themes Project Onboarding
• Bengali Polyglots Onboarding

Thank you!

This program was a true community effort, with WordPress Contributor Working Group members working hand-in-hand to make this pilot program a reality. We faced many challenges, but we all worked together to ensure a smooth contributor experience for our mentees. 

Mentors

As a heavily mentor-driven program, our mentors are the cornerstone behind the success of this cohort. Mentors went out of their way to support their paired mentees by helping them step up their contributions. I can safely attribute the success of our program to the exceptional support and commitment offered by our vibrant group of mentors.

Major props and limitless gratitude to our all our amazing mentors: @adityakane @anandau14 @aravindajith @benjamin_zekavica @courane01 @devmuhib @dufresnesteven @estelaris @felipeelia @gounder @hasanuzzamanshamim @jdy68 @josepmoran @kafleg @mikeschroder @ndiego @nilovelez @ninianepress @oglekler @onemaggie @patricia70 @properlypurple @thehopemonger @tobifjellner @topher1kenobe @unintended8 @webtechpooja @yoga1103

Facilitators and Supporters

Members of the WordPress Contributor Working Group managed the entire program, with @harishanker @nao and @patricia70 leading the facilitation efforts. Big thanks to other members of the working group who helped shape the current state of the program through extensive discussions and active participation in our team chats: @adityakane @alexdeborba @alexcu21 @anandau14 @annezazu @askdesign @coachbirgit @devmuhib @gusa @javiercasares @jeffpaul @josepmoran @kafleg @kirasong @leogopal @lumiblog @malgra @matteoenna @nilovelez @ninianepress @peiraisotta @oglekler @onealtr @ratneshsonar @soberbanda @tobifjellner @topher1kenobe @unintended8 @sereedmedia @webtechpooja @yoga1103

Glimpses Into The Past Six Weeks

Our mentors and mentees did not miss any chance to connect with each other. We hung out with each other informal group calls and had a lot of fun! Some of us also met in-person a few times at WordCamp Asia and WordCamp Torrelodones!

What next?

Even though the mentorship program has formally concluded, our mentees’ WordPress contributor journey has only started. Many of our mentees have prepared 30-60-90 day plans and plan to active contribute to WordPress. Quite a few of our mentees have also expressed interest in participating in the WordPress 6.6 release process. We have a total of 19 participants from our program who would like to join the 6.6 release team so far, with 14 applications coming from mentees! Many mentees have formally ensconced their commitment to WordPress contributions by pledging to contribute through part of Five for the Future, with at least one mentee securing sponsorship from their employer to do so during the program! 

Going forward the success of our program depends on how engaged our mentees are. We are working on a post-event survey for our mentees and mentors, and the survey results will shed more light into how the program went. Working group members aim to check in with mentees later this year to see how they are doing with their contributor journey, to also find out more about their contribution journey and offer any support that they need.

Even as we celebrate the success of the contributor mentorship program, the Contributor Working Group still has miles to go. We will continue our monthly chats, and start working on the next iteration of the mentorship program alongside WordPress 6.7, in November.The working group also aims to start working on other tasks to improve the overall WordPress contributor experience, focusing on improving programs such as Five for the Future.

Reading about the program so far, what are your thoughts on this mentorship program? Do you have any thoughts, suggestions, feelings, ideas, or feedback for us? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

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