Kicking Off Outreachy: Week One Highlights, a Journey of Contribution and Growth

Yay, I got into Outreachy 💃

Hello everyone 👋, Welcome to my blog!

My name is Peace Sandy, and I am an Outreachy Intern. I am a Software Developer who loves to break down technical terminologies into simpler terms through writing.

I love contributing to open source and collaborating with others. I hold a B.Sc. in microbiology, and I'm particularly interested in research and bioinformatics. This was one of the reasons why I was particularly excited about contributing to the Bioconductor Community. I saw it as an opportunity to hone my knowledge as a microbiologist and make meaningful contributions.

Being accepted as an Outreachy intern (December 2023–March 2024) feels like a dream come true! My core values and principles, which drive me to excel in all I do, have paved the way for this incredible opportunity.

My core values are community, meaningful work, and growth. I refer to these three values as the bedrock of all my values. At this point, I know that you might be wondering what the rationale behind these values might be.

These three values are interwoven into one because community helps to accelerate growth, and by collaborating in a community, meaningful work can be done.

Belonging to a community has been a significant factor in my career success. Communities that function well aid in effective collaboration and communication, which are skills that are useful throughout one's career. Additionally, being part of a community helps you connect with the right people who can assist you in securing your first job.

Imagine a community where meaningful work takes a backseat. Such an environment would likely fall short of its desired outcomes. Why? Because meaningful work isn't just about completing tasks; it's about investing your best effort to ensure project success and goal achievement. It's a demonstration of your skills and ability to deliver independently of constant oversight.

Now to my last core value, I call it the "icing on the cake." Imagine yourself in five years. What comes to mind? Let me guess: growth, right? Everyone loves growth, and so do I. Growth is one of the core values that I'm interested in. Growth helps you see how far you have come and the meaningful progress that you have made over time.

Outreachy: The Journey So Far

Getting an internship opportunity has been on my vision board since the year began. Imagine the smile on my face as I went back to check it off my bucket list. With the Outreachy internship, I have my first paid opportunity in tech. At this point, you might be wondering what Outreachy is. Outreachy is a program that provides internships in open source and open science. Outreachy provides internships to people subject to systemic bias and impacted by underrepresentation in the technical industry where they are living.

Application Phase

I found out about Outreachy on social media. I read a blog post about the program and decided to apply. I was motivated to apply for Outreachy because of how inclusive it is. The application phase is in two stages: the initial application stage and the contribution stage. During the contribution stage, I found an interesting project that I had so much interest in, and I started contributing.

I started contributing to the Bioconductor project, which has been amazing. I've been diving deep into microbiome study curation on the BugSigDB project.

BugSigDB

BugSigDB is a comprehensive database of published microbial signatures. BugSigDB.org (published in Nature Biotechnology) is a community-editable Semantic Mediawiki knowledge management system that standardizes, enables analysis, and allows bulk download of differential abundance results from all types of metagenomic studies.

I saw the BugSigDB project as a project that would help me hone my research skills as a microbiologist. I had just graduated from the university, and after months of research and writing a good final-year project, contributing to BugSigDB was a dream come true. It was that work experience that matched exactly where my interest lies. Getting the opportunity to contribute to a project that included tech and what I spent years studying in school made me understand that no knowledge is a waste.

Bioconductor Community

The Bioconductor community is a fascinating and impressive community to get involved in if you are interested in contributing to open-source and open science initiatives.

This community is welcoming and accommodating to new members. During my contribution, I had the privilege of working with three exceptional mentors: Chloe Mirzayi, Svetlana Ugarcina Perovic, and Levi Waldron. My mentors were incredibly helpful, supportive, and attentive.

Image Alt Text: One of our online weekly meetings with mentors

They were always available to answer questions and provide guidance, making the contribution process smooth and seamless. If you are interested in contributing to the BugSigDB project, please check out these helpful learning resources.

BugSigDB HOWTO Videos

A complete Microbiome Study Curation

BugSigDB Main Page

BugSigDB published in Nature Biotechnology

Internship Phase

Dreams do come true!

On November 21st, I received an email that changed the course of my career. It was proof that hard work and faith in God will take you far.

Well, it's been two weeks of contributing to the Bioconductor community as an Outreachy Intern, which includes reviewing existing BugSigDB curations and curating newly published microbiome research.

I have had an amazing journey so far. My mentor, Levi Waldron, has been incredibly supportive and helpful. He helped me settle in and even gave me access to various resources and courses that will be beneficial to me beyond the internship period. These learning resources have been very helpful, and I am currently learning R programming, which I will use to perform exploratory data analysis.

Final note

The first week of my internship has shown me that I will need to do a lot of research and learn new skills to complete my tasks. I'm looking forward to putting in my best and making sure that I put in meaningful work that aligns with my core values.

Cheers to many more BugSigDB-ing! 🥂