Tips and Tricks for Google Summer of Code 2025

The Open Transit Software Foundation (OneBusAway) was a participant in last year's Google Summer of Code. Both the mentors and the student participants found it to be a valuable experience, and we're delighted to say that we plan on participating again this year. (Google permitting, of course!) This was my first year as an org admin, as the primary point of contact for our applicants and participants, and as the primary reader of every single proposal that came through. (We received a record 135 proposals!)

Tips and Tricks

Gearing up for my second year as the org admin, here are some tips and tricks you can use to best set yourself up for success:

1. Visit our GitHub organization and browse through the active projects we're working on to familiarize yourself with where your skills and learning interests may overlap with our needs: https://github.com/OneBusAway/
2. Join our Slack, introduce yourself, and share some information about what types of projects you're interested in working on: https://opentransitsoftwarefoundation.org/join-our-slack/
3. Contribute to the project you want to work on early and carefully consider all of the feedback you receive. 4 of our 5 GSoC participants last summer contributed code before they were selected, which made it easy for us to vet their skills and know that they would be set up for success on the project they were working on.

Projects We're Considering

We have moved our projects list into a dedicated blog post.

Good luck!

Aaron, Executive Director