Applications are now open for Summer 2025 participation in the Linux Foundation Mentorship Program, a program that provides structured guidance and opportunities for newcomers to contribute to the Linux kernel and other open-source projects.

The Linux Foundation Mentorship Program is now in its seventh year under the direction Shuah Khan. Back in 2019 at its inception Khan explained:

"We identified three reasons for starting the program: diversity, community health, and sustainability. You have to inject new talent and bring in people, new developers that can take over at some point from the aging maintainer population and step into these important roles. So, we felt that the best approach at the time would be having these developers trained by maintainer experts in those areas." 

Run as a virtual program, the Linux Foundation Mentorship Program (LFKP) connects inexperienced mentees with experienced mentors, including over the years Linux luminaries Greg Kroah-Hartman and Shuah Khan herself. The idea is to increase diversity and inclusion in open source communities and ensure that younger developers are being groomed to take over the reins of open source projects as the current maintainers retire.

There are both 12-week (Spring, Summer and Fall dates) and 24-week programs, with opportunities for part-time and full-time mentorships. Mentees are not paid wages for participating in the mentorship. However, some projects may offer stipends or other incentives to support mentees. 

You may notice similarities with Google Summer of Code. However to be eligible for GSoC you have to be a newcomer to open source while LFKP is for a wider group with limited experience in open source. 

Applications are open now for 36 forthcoming programs from projects in:

• CNCF
• GraphQL
• Hyperledger
• LF Networking
• Linux Kernel
• OpenHPC
• Open Mainframe Project
• RISC-V

You have to be 18 or over when the Mentorship program you are applying for starts and eligible to work in the country where you reside. There are are some geo-political restrictions and the program excludes anyone from Cuba, Iran, North Korean, Russian Federation or Crimea region of Ukraine

To apply for the program would-be mentees need to provide personal information by answering the following questions:

1. What is your current status, are you a student/transitioning into a new career?

2. What are you goals and aspirations?

3. Why are you interested in this mentorship opportunity?

4. Tell us something that makes you unique as an applicant

Given that only around 7% of applicants are accepted you need to make a good case for yourself, bearing in mind the focus on diversity and inclusivity. The application period will shortly close and successful applicants will be notified a couple of weeks before the program starts.

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