Why do an Open Source Fellowship?
More than 90% of all software runs on open source today. Knowing how to be a great open source citizen is an essential skill for any aspiring engineer. Whether you join our Software Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering, or Web3 tracks, you'll be contributing to the type of open source projects that every company depends on, and experience what it's like to work on a real software engineering team first-hand.
Getting Started in Open Source
The MLH Fellowship is a 12-week internship alternative for aspiring software engineers. Instead of interning at a single company, MLH Fellows contribute to the type of open source projects that every company and community depends on. All of MLH's Fellowship Tracks -- Software Engineering, Web3, Site Reliability, and more -- are powered by open source projects.
Through a competitive application process, this immersive program identifies Fellows from across the world and matches them with open source projects and maintainers over a period of 12 weeks.
During the Fellowship, Fellows will:
- Create production-quality open source contributions
- Build a network of amazing fellows, maintainers, and mentors to learn with/from
- Gain access to stipends, live technical training, and career support
Launched in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the MLH Fellowship has grown to support hundreds of fellows at dozens of partner companies annually, and was recently recognized as the Best Developer Education Initiative by the DevRel Awards!
MLH Fellowship: Commitment to Open Source
The MLH Fellowship has already made a profound impact on both our participating fellows and on the open source community as a whole. We are growing every year!
1000+Fellows Graduated
100+Open Source Projects Supported, Annually
50%Half of MLH Fellows make their first open source pull request in the program
1000+Total Number of Open Source Pull Requests from our Fellows, annually
Traditional Interns fetch the coffee. Open Source Fellows launch careers.
We're rethinking technical education from the ground up. We've incorporated years of expertise helping early technologists launch their careers.
Educational Curriculum
Learn industry best practices using tools like Git & GitHub that you can apply to your project.
Remote First
Our program was designed to be remote from the beginning. Learn from wherever you are.
Small Groups
Join a Pod of 10 other fellows that collaborates & goes through the program together.
Technical Mentorship
Learn from professional software engineers using code reviews & pair programming.
Extra Curriculars
Participate in fun & educational events like our speaker series & hackathons.
Real-world Projects
Contribute to real-world projects that people depend on, not just a side project.
Career Training
Practice interviewing & get tactical feedback on your resume from experts.
Educational Stipend
Participants receive an educational stipend to offset costs during select programs.
How will I spend my time in an Open Source Fellowship?
Here's what a typical day in the fellowship might look like. The program runs Monday - Friday in most major timezones. Tasks completed asynchronously (on your own time) are noted below.
10:00 AM
Daily Standup
Start your day with your Pod's daily standup where you'll share what you're working on and eliminate blockers.
Pair Programming
Jump into a pair programming session with another fellow to put the finishing touches on a pull request you're working on together.
12:00 PM
Speaker Series
Attend one of the regular speaker sessions where you'll learn from engineers, founders, and talent experts.
02:00 PM
Practical Curriculum (async)
Go through the latest module on the LMS where you're learning practical skills you can apply right away.
Contributing to your Project (async)
Put what you've been learning into into practice by making some edits to your pull request before sending it upstream.
05:00 PM
Code Review
Meet with one of the expert mentors for a code review of the pull request you were working on this morning. Lots of great feedback you can start on in the morning!
Learning to code is likegetting from zero to one.
MLH helps developers getfrom one to a job.
The things you learn in a classroom aren't the things you need to know to launch a career in tech. As an open source fellow with MLH, you'll gain the type of applied experience that employers want to see.
Apply to Any of our Fellowship Tracks
All of our tracks are powered by open source projects. Select the one that best fits your interests -- or apply to all of them!
Want to experience the fellowship before commiting to 12-weeks? Check out our 3-week intensive, MLH Fellowship Prep Program