The three-month-long global program pays university students a stipend to work on open-source projects with mentors in the field. Students apply to be part of the program and, if accepted, are paired with a mentor who helps expose him or her to real-world software development as well as potentially assist with future job opportunities.
The summer event began with organizations and mentors submitting proposals for projects. 180 projects were selected to be included in the program this year. Now it's time for students to sign up to participate in projects they're interested in.
From Tuesday until Friday, April 6 at 19:00 UTC, interested students can submit a proposal to work on the project of their choice to the mentoring organizations via the Summer of Code website. The highly competitive program allows students to submit proposals to more than one project, but advises focusing on quality over quantity.
If you're interested in applying, Google has some tips on its website for writing a quality proposal that will stand out from the crowd. The company also plans to hold a Google+ hangout April 2 at 3:30pm PDT on its Google Students page with Open Source Programs Manager Chris DiBona to talk about the program and answer questions live. Google will announce the accepted student proposals April 23 on the Summer of Code site.