An Outreachy Chapter Begins

Hi 👋 , my name is Fatuma Abdullahi. I’m a front-end developer, accessibility advocate, FreeCodeCamp author, and recently, a Product Design contractor at Wikimedia. If you are wondering how that is, the answer is Outreachy.

Outreachy is a non-profit organization that facilitates paid opportunities in open source and open science for underrepresented folk. The program runs twice a year and is highly competitive. You can read more about it here.

My tech journey, like life itself, has not been a straight line. I started with graphic design, then UI/UX design, then web development, took a detour into mobile development, then found my way back to my comfort zone: web development, and now I’m back where it started: Design.

I’ve always considered myself both a designer and a developer but typically don’t spend enough time on the design side of things. This project is the perfect opportunity to sharpen those skills.

As this was my third attempt to land Outreachy, I’m very excited and can’t wait to knock this out of the park under the guidance of a pro product design mentor at an amazing organization (Wikimedia what?! 🤯). I’m also looking forward to learning about and sharing on accessible design. I can’t wait to see how it intersects with web accessibility in code.

Core Values

Reflecting on how I got here and what values have persisted for me over the years, I’d like to share my core values.

Loyalty

Loyalty has always been a core part of my self-perception and how I interact with the world. Being loyal means that you are dependable and trustworthy, values I hope I embody and reflect onto the world, and which, I deeply admire in others.

Integrity

Being straightforward, open, and honest is key to building trust with the world, and aligning your actions with your values is key to building trust with yourself. Acting with integrity might not always be easy but it is the path I hope to have taken before and hope to continue taking. As such I deeply respect those who hold integrity close to heart and do justice by it with their actions.

Composure and Gentleness

Being able to maintain mental clarity when under stress is a valuable skill. It enables you to make better decisions, even when things are intense. It’s the ultimate form of self-control to know when to respond to emotional situations. It protects your reputation, makes you more approachable, and increases trust in your decisions. Most importantly, it reinforces integrity by encouraging you to keep your reactions aligned with your values.

Why Outreachy

As I mentioned above, this wasn’t the first time I applied and got to the contribution stage. This is why I persisted: Outreachy offers a unique opportunity to engage with top open-source organizations and gain experience while being paid.

Open Source FTW (For The Win)

I discovered open source at my first job and have been won over since my first contribution ever was merged at Supabase. That Outreachy worked exclusively with Open source projects and was invested in making the ecosystem more welcoming and sustainable was all the reason I needed to keep at it.

Remote Organizations

Outreachy works with global organizations and takes in underrepresented folks across the world. This means that they offered fully remote opportunities and this resonated with me. I love working remotely and working in cross-cultural teams.

Going forward, I will be writing more about Outreachy and my work at Wikimedia. You can follow along to stay updated 😊 and please feel free to ask questions. You can reach me on Twitter.