A First Look at DrupalCon Seattle’s Scholarship & Grant Recipients
We extend a hearty congratulations to our 10 scholarship and 12 grant recipients. A global team of community members were given the green light to award more funds than ever before, aiming to have a cross-section of contributors in attendance at DrupalCon Seattle 2019. As a result, we’re awarding aid to people from nearly every continent: six attendees from Europe, nine attendees from the Americas, two attendees from Africa, four attendees from South Asia, and one attendee from Australia.
Our grant and scholarship program provides assistance to those in the Drupal community who may not otherwise be able to attend DrupalCon Seattle.
Funding is through the support of our generous conference partners, as well as conference registrations from Drupal community members.
The impact of having these recipients attend is far-reaching.
“There’s so much I can learn at a Con that I can’t learn at our Camps here in South Africa,” wrote Dane Rossenrode in his application. “Like: which techs the big agencies are using with Drupal, how they’re serving their clients, and how they scale up their agencies.” Rossenrode was awarded a scholarship to specifically grow the Drupal community in his home region.
“DrupalCons are my chance to meet other contributors (code and community) to Drupal to discuss and work on ideas. It is much easier to get ideas across face to face than on issue queues or IRC/Slack,” wrote Hussain Abbas of India, whose grant is specifically for contribution to the Project.
Likewise, another contribution-specific grant recipient agrees.
“I meet people that show me their module...it improves the Drupal ecosystem...it’s always fun and rewarding to code with amazing people,” wrote
Many recipients also applied with specific future outcomes in mind.
“The museum has an initiative to digitize more of its collections for public use. DrupalCon would provide an opportunity for not only training but to connect with other institutions serving content for the public’s benefit,” wrote John Ivie of his role “as an emerging IT professional in higher education.”
For an applicant in Nicaragua, attending DrupalCon can directly result in growing community.
“I helped organize a Drupal camp attended by more than 100 people. The Camp was heavily influenced by the things I have learned from attending events,” wrote Mauricio Dinarte. “I also want to attend DrupalCon Seattle to help as a mentor in the contribution sprints.”
A recipient from Russia has a tangible takeaway as well.
“I’m planning to record more videos....and create the general video that will promote Global Training Days events and show the power of the Drupal community,” wrote Marina Paych, whose scholarship is for growing Drupal adoption.
For others, their presence at the event was a motivator for applying.
“As someone who identifies as marginalized, I want to be visible. I want to stay involved, take leadership roles, and show the community that I’m here. That way, if there are other women who can identify with me, they’ll feel more comfortable being engaged. It’s like paving the road for people who have barriers,” wrote Fatima Khalid of Canada, whose scholarship is to grow local community.
Some recipients have long lists of objectives they plan to accomplish by attending.
“I will be a volunteer onsite, mentoring DrupalCon attendees during code sprints, participating in code sprint activities (Issue Triaging, leading Sprint Rooms, leading First-Time Sprinter Workshops, etc.) and managing and coordinating the Core Mentor Booth,” wrote Tushar Thatikonda of India, whose grant is for contribution to the Project.
“I want to learn best practices on building my own modules...to leverage Drupal as a nonprofit donation platform...to create stronger web accessibility standards..and much more,” wrote Rumeal Lovell, whose scholarship is to grow community. “Drupal is like a vast ocean and I want to swim as much as possible!”
Congratulations to all the DrupalCon Seattle recipients:
