# **Outreachy Mentorship Guideline**

Outreachy mentors. Each Outreachy intern works on a three-month project with one or more mentors. Prospective interns (applicants) work with mentors to complete small contributions to the project during the six-week application period. Here is an overview of mentor duties

## Mentor Responsibilities

- Committing to 5-10 hours a week during the six-week application period to review applicant contributions
- Committing to 5 hours a week during the three-month internship period to work with the Outreachy intern
- Committing to the possibility of the internship being extended for up to five weeks
- Committing to signing the [mentorship agreement](https://github.com/sagesharp/outreachy-django-wagtail/blob/master/docs/mentor-agreement.md).

## Mentor Duties Before Application Period

- Signing up to be a mentor on the [Outreachy community page](https://www.outreachy.org/communities/cfp/)
- Defining a project for an Outreachy intern to work on
- Defining a set of smaller contributions Outreachy applicants can complete during the application phase. Only Outreachy applicants that complete a contribution can be accepted as an intern.

## Mentor Duties During the Application Period

- Reviewing applicant eligibility in the application system, especially time commitments
- Reviewing applicant contributions and being able to respond to applicant questions promptly
- Communicating with Moja Global community coordinator and the Outreachy organizers if you have too many or too few applicants
- Selecting an intern ASAP after the application deadline closes
- Tracking your intern progress and reporting progress to Outreachy organizers during the mid-term and final review period

## Avoiding Bias

Please note that in order to eliminate bias in picking interns,
Outreachy has some rules for mentors:

- Do not pick an applicant because you have a prior relationship with them
- Do not pick an applicant because of the country they are living in
- Do not pick an applicant because they work in your city
- Do not pick an applicant because of their education level

## Time Commitment

Mentors should be able to commit at least 5 hours a week on most weeks from the beginning of the six-week application period through the end of the three-month internship. The application period is often more time-intensive than the internship period because applicants will need help getting started and identifying a good first contribution they can make to the FOSS project. Having a co-mentor or a project team who can review contributions and point people in the right direction can help spread the load during the application period and internship.

Each mentor will also need to accept a mentor agreement and their intern will need to accept an intern agreement. (See [mentor](https://github.com/sagesharp/outreachy-django-wagtail/blob/master/docs/mentor-agreement.md) and [intern](https://www.outreachy.org/documents/5/Outreachy-Program--Internship-Terms-of-Participation-December-2017.pdf) agreement examples).

## Co-mentoring Is Encouraged

If you\'re thinking about being a mentor, you should carefully look at the [mentorship timeline](https://www.outreachy.org/mentor/) and determine your availability. If you\'re going on vacation for more than a week during the internship or you will have a heavy workload, you should consider adding a co-mentor. Co-mentors can help review intern contributions and answer questions.

Each Outreachy mentor works directly with one Outreachy intern. It is very rare for mentors to work with more than one Outreachy intern. In fact, it\'s encouraged that mentors find a co-mentor who can help review contributions and answer questions for their interns. Co-mentors are especially helpful during the application period when there are many applicants who need help getting started.

You can decide with your co-mentor if one person is considered a primary mentor and the other person is considered a secondary mentor or if you both share the mentorship responsibilities equally. Multiple mentors can accept a mentor agreement for the same intern and be listed as official mentors. It\'s the official mentor(s) responsibility to guide the intern and connect the intern with other people who can help with, review, and merge the intern\'s contributions throughout the internship. Upon consultation with other official mentors, if any, one of the official mentors provides feedback during the internship mid-point and final review, which will determine whether an Outreachy intern is paid the mid-point and final payments.

# Pre-application Process

# Define a Project

Each Outreachy mentor works to define a suitable project for the three-month internship.

It\'s fine for Moja Global to have more projects than it has intern funding for. That gives applicants a choice of projects. Please note that if you propose a project, you should be committed to mentor that project. Communities that intend to accept 1-2 interns often list 3-5 projects.

Only Outreachy mentors should propose internship projects. Outreachy does not accept projects proposed by an applicant. We do not allow mentors to submit a project with a particular applicant in mind. All project mentors should be willing to work with any applicant during the contribution phase. This allows all Outreachy applicants a fair chance at obtaining an internship based on their skills, rather than existing connections to a free software community.

# Project Tasks & Timeline

As part of the final application, applicants are asked to build a tentative timeline for their project. Mentors should have a rough idea of the series of tasks for their project. Project timelines are often adjusted during the internship. Sometimes that\'s because a task took longer than a mentor expected. Mentors and interns may also adjust project goals based on what the intern is interested in, or if the intern needs more time to learn a skill or tool. Mentors should be open to adjusting project timelines.

At the beginning of the project timeline, we recommend including time for Outreachy interns to ramp up. They will need to learn new skills and tools, and integrate themselves into the Moja Global community. Mentors will need to spend time introducing interns to key stakeholders and collaborators. Mentors may need to spend time connecting their interns to Moja Global community experts on the project\'s topic.

Project timelines should start with smaller tasks and progress over time to more complex tasks. Mentors should plan on needing to suggest new tasks. Some interns may propose new tasks themselves, but it is not required for them to do so.

Outreachy will not extend an internship in order to meet a project goal. We only extend the internship if the intern has not been putting in a full-time effort. Interns may volunteer their time to continue working after the internship ends, but they are not required to do so. Mentors should plan the project timeline while knowing that tasks towards the end may not be completed.

Once you have an internship project in mind, you\'ll need to [submit a project proposal](https://www.outreachy.org/communities/cfp/). When your project proposal is approved by Moja Global coordinator, and Moja Global is approved to participate in this Outreachy internship round, you\'ll receive an email notification. Meanwhile, follow the next steps.

# Define Starter Tasks

Applicants will also need to make small contributions to your project during the six-week application period. In order to be accepted as an intern, applicants need to get one contribution successfully completed (and hopefully merged into the project). The strongest applicants are the ones that consistently produce multiple, small contributions during the application process. Applicants that produce a large contribution at the last minute often have inconsistent internship results.

In order to ensure you can successfully evaluate applicants, you\'ll need to create a set of contributions for applicants to complete. You should have around 10-20 small newcomer tasks and 5-10 medium-sized tasks.

You should have smaller tasks that are newcomer-friendly. They should have a good description and contain links to relevant documentation. Some applicants may \"claim\" a smaller task and then not complete it. It\'s good to have a lot of smaller tasks. You can also have smaller starter tasks that can be completed by multiple applicants (like a user experience survey or a graphic design proposal).

Once an applicant has completed a few smaller tasks, they\'ll want to have a medium-sized task. This task is a chance for them to prove they have the skills needed for your project.

A medium-sized task should test the skills that are necessary for an intern to be successful on this internship project. This is because Outreachy does not allow mentors to select an intern on the basis of educational background. Mentors should consider all applicants, regardless of whether they have a university degree, have completed a coding school, or they are completely self-taught. You will be selecting
an intern based on the quality of their contributions alone. In order to ensure you select an applicant who can successfully complete the internship, your tasks will need to test any skills you consider relevant to the internship project.

Make sure you have a large set of small and medium-sized tasks! On average, about 5 applicants complete a contribution to an Outreachy project. Some popular projects have had as many as 23 applicants complete a contribution. You should expect that most applicants will complete 1 or 2 tasks. Applicants who are selected as interns usually complete 4 tasks on average. Some interns have completed as many as 13
contributions during the application process.

You may want to save some smaller tasks for the last few weeks of the application period. Save those tasks and don\'t put them in your task tracker until the last two weeks. This allows applicants who come in later in the application period to have a chance at completing a smaller starter task. It\'s important that mentors remain responsive to applicants who are completing tasks during this period. Mentors can be
honest with the applicant if they already have an intern selection in mind (and that applicant has completed a final application). However, mentors shouldn\'t ignore requests for help or requests for a starter task, as this leads to a bad experience for the applicants.

## Watch for Project Applicants on Outreachy.org

After the Outreachy application period opens, applicants will start recording their project contributions on the Outreachy website. Mentors will [find information about applicants from links listed in the prompt at the top of the projects listing page](https://www.outreachy.org/apply/project-selection/) when they\'re logged in. Not all interested applicants will make a contribution, and only a few will actually submit an application. If you don\'t have promising applicants who have made a contribution, you might want to ping interested applicants to let them know you\'re looking for
additional contributions.

It\'s important that you check the eligibility of applicants. The project applicants page will display applicant eligibility information, including their time commitments. Outreachy requires applicants to have 7 consecutive weeks (49 days) free from full-time commitments. That is the absolute bare minimum amount of free time required.

Only applicants who have been determined to be eligible for the program will show up on the project applicants page. If you are working with a promising Outreachy applicant, but you don\'t see them on your project applicant page, remind them to record a contribution.

Note that mentors will not be able to accept ineligible applicants as interns. Applicants with borderline time commitment eligibility and few contributions may be turned down by coordinators or Outreachy organizers, especially if you are applying for Outreachy general funding.

## Application Process

During the application process, mentors will need to be responsive to applicants via email and on any slack channel. We find that some applicants are shy about collaborating on public channels, and need to be able to make contact with mentors privately first. Please make sure to list your email address in your project description. Once applicants contact you privately, you can encourage them to speak up in public channels. Do not try to \"force\" applicants to use public channels by
not listing your private email.

Make sure you\'re responsive to questions during the application process. You may need to work with other Outreachy mentors or community members in shifts to ensure you respond to applicants in different time zones. Common applicant timezones are Europe (UTC+3), India (UTC+5), the U.S. west coast (UTC-7), and the east coast (UTC-4).

Most Outreachy applicants hope to get an answer to questions asked on the slack channel within 4 hours. If Outreachy interns don\'t hear back from an email to a mentor in 2-3 days, they often get worried and self-doubt will kick in. If Outreachy interns don\'t hear back, they\'ll often start applying to another project.

Start hanging out in \#outreachy and \#outreachy-admin on GIMPNet (irc.gnome.org). You are welcome to pitch in to answer any questions from prospective applicants on the mailing list and the IRC channel.

## Applicant Eligibility

It\'s important that Outreachy mentors don\'t waste their time working with applicants who aren\'t eligible for the program. We often find applicants \"push the boundaries\" of our eligibility requirements, especially when it comes to the eligibility requirements for students. We suggest that all mentors:

- Familiarize themselves with the [eligibility requirements.](https://www.outreachy.org/apply/eligibility/)
- Check your project applicant page periodically to ensure you\'re working with eligible applications. If you\'re working with an applicant that hasn\'t filled out eligibility information, encourage them to make an account on the Outreachy website and record a contribution.
- Select your interns promptly after the deadline. Only select the intern you are willing to mentor. Do not select backup interns. Outreachy organizers will do a final check of all applicant eligibility, and they may require mentors to make a different intern selection if their first choice isn\'t eligible. Outreachy organizers also may need to work with mentors when two projects select the same intern.

## Too Many Applicants?

Because we ask the applicants to collaborate with mentors during the application process, mentors often find themselves overwhelmed with potential applicants. Please do not hesitate to redirect applicants to other projects or to learn more on their own if one of the following applies:
- You already have one or two strong applicants working with you, whom you are likely to want to accept, reaching the number of people you are willing to mentor in one round. Please post \[No longer taking applicants\] next to the description of your project and, if you have strong runner-up applicants, beyond the ones you think you would be willing to mentor, suggest that they find a different project with your organization or a different organization.
- You already have as many applicants as you can possibly work with during the application process, though you are not yet clear if any one of them will be a strong enough candidate to want to accept. Please ask new people who don\'t seem highly promising who contact you to look for a different project. Post \[No longer taking applicants\] next to the description of your project if that seems most effective, at least until you figure out if there is a strong candidate among the applicants you are working with.
- The applicant clearly lacks the basic skills needed for succeeding in your project. Please point them to the relevant resources that can help them learn more first.

Your organization\'s coordinator and Outreachy coordinators will often be able to help you redirect strong runner-up applicants and new applicants to projects with few applicants.

Please let Outreachy coordinators know when you are no longer available to work with new applicants so that we can update the listing for your idea on the main page for the round appropriately.

## Too Few Applicants?

Some of the common causes for too few applicants are:

- The project description does not define what the project is in layman terms. Like a patent application, assume that an Outreachy applicant is \"versed in the art\" of basic to intermediate programming, but lacks specific knowledge of your field.
- No clearly defined starter tasks. Outreachy applicants get discouraged when they are told to \"just look at the bug tracker.\" Make sure you have a list of Outreachy tasks or a \"newcomer-friendly\" tag in your tracking system.
- Unresponsive mentor. The most successful projects have highly responsive mentors.
- Not enough project advertisement. The Outreachy organizers work tirelessly on Twitter and reach out to applicants through universities and contacts we make at technical conferences. However, we need your project\'s help, by making sure your landing page is ready when the round opens. A week after the round opens, we hold the Outreachy Twitter Chat, which is a good way to introduce project mentors and community coordinators to potential applicants.

## Intern Selection

You will be emailed instructions on how to select an intern. Only select the intern you want to work with. Do not mark \"backup\" or \"alternate choices\".

# Avoiding Biased Intern Selections

Outreachy mentors should not have a particular applicant in mind when they submit their project description. Mentors should work with all applicants and pick the applicant that has the strongest contribution during the contribution period. To eliminate bias in picking interns, Outreachy has some rules for mentors:

- Do not pick an applicant because you have a prior relationship with them
- Do not pick an applicant on the basis of the country they are living in
- Do not pick an applicant because they work in your city
- Do not pick an applicant because of their education level

Going into the Outreachy internship with the applicant in mind to pick is strongly discouraged, as it means applicants will work with you but not have a chance of being picked as an intern.

Outreachy mentors need to be flexible about where interns are located. Mentors should not expect that they will have in-person meetings with their interns. Outreachy is designed to give opportunities to applicants around the world. Mentors are more likely to be located in larger cities in developed countries. If a mentor has a preference toward accepting an applicant who lives in their area or country, it is not fair to Outreachy applicants who live in rural areas or developing countries.

Mentors sometimes worry about which time zones applicants are in. However, many applicants are able to shift their work schedule to have at least 2-3 hours of overlap with their mentor\'s work period. Mentors should discuss the possibility of shifting work hours with strong applicants if it is a concern.

Mentors are sometimes looking for applicants who have particularly strong technical backgrounds. Traditionally, companies would require a particular level of education for applicants. However, requiring applicants to have a college degree excludes many people who cannot afford college. Additionally, many colleges do not teach the same
skills. Even if colleges teach the skills mentors are looking for, a degree is no guarantee that students have mastered those skills.

Outreachy mentors should not require applicants to have a specific degree to be accepted as an intern. We encourage mentors to think about what skills they want interns to have. Then create medium-sized contribution tasks that test those skills. Applicants will be able to show they have the skills for your project during the contribution period. If you are concerned about skill level, only pick an applicant
who has completed a medium-sized contribution task.

Some Outreachy communities implement double-blind reviews of contributions. They have turned on GitHub features to hide applicant names on issues and pull requests. Teams review the contributions and decide which applicant to accept without knowing the applicant\'s name. The Outreachy contribution recording process and the final applicant do show the applicant\'s name. If mentors want anonymized final applications, they should ask their coordinator or a third party to anonymize the final application.

# During the Internship

## Tips for Working with Interns

Communicate with your mentee frequently, point them to the relevant resources and people, and get their questions answered.

Establish office hours on the slack channel twice a week, or at least once a week, when it is convenient for both of you to be around, discuss progress, and solve any issues together. Have the conversations in the slack channel, so that other people can learn from them or offer help. Interns often also benefit from private sessions where they can ask questions, such as a once-a-week video chat.

Encourage your intern to blog. A link to your intern\'s blog will be listed on the [alums](https://www.outreachy.org/alums/) page. If your intern hasn\'t created a blog before the internship starts, encourage them to do so within the first week. Interns often feel pressure to get blog posts \"perfect\". Encourage your intern to write down things that they struggled with, or have questions about, since the simple act of writing things down can help them solve problems. Intern blog posts are often details about what the interns are working on, but can also include things that they find surprising about working in open source, techniques for working efficiently, their feelings about the internship, or even talking about what the interns find confusing. We find the best blog posts are honest and open.

Teach interns about open-source collaboration. Many Outreachy interns haven\'t worked on a long-term project that involves working with a community. As such, they may not realize how much time it will take to submit work to the community, get feedback, and revise the contributions. Work on a plan for when tasks can be submitted to the
community, and encourage your intern to engage in community design discussions and submit contributions early for review.

Teach interns about task and time management. It\'s good for mentors to have a rough timeline in mind for the internship, but be willing to adjust it as necessary. Feel free to discuss and adjust the tasks for the intern to make sure the tasks stay manageable and relevant. The tasks should correspond to the intern\'s shown abilities, evolving interests, and current priorities of your project.

# Dealing With Impostor Syndrome

Outreachy interns often experience impostor syndrome. Impostor syndrome is characterized by feelings of self-doubt: feeling that your accomplishments are only due to luck when you\'ve actually put a lot of effort into looking for opportunities and networking, feeling that your work is sub-par when it is actually quite good, and feeling that everyone knows more or works faster than you.

Impostor syndrome is caused by a combination of unrelenting personal standards and an inability to accept and internalize praise. People who suffer from impostor syndrome often harshly criticize themselves, have perfectionist tendencies, and downplay their accomplishments. They often feel like everyone knows more than they do, or that they are only successful because of luck. They often have trouble asking questions in
a public setting, for fear they will be exposed or ridiculed for lacking
knowledge.

People who are from groups underrepresented in tech are more likely to experience impostor syndrome. They face discrimination which means they have to work harder or be more careful in order to obtain the same success as people who aren\'t a minority in tech. This leads to a skewed view of what it takes to be successful, and a persistent need to downplay accomplishments, lest they be criticized or have opportunities taken away.

Outreachy is designed to help interns overcome impostor syndrome. Working with a mentor allows them to ask questions without feeling judged for what they don\'t know. While mentors should encourage interns to collaborate publicly, mentors should also be available for answering questions privately. In order to get Outreachy interns used to talking about their accomplishments, Outreachy requires interns to blog every two weeks. Outreachy also provides a travel stipend in order to encourage interns to speak at conferences about their accomplishments, or network with community members.

Mentors are encouraged to [watch this FOSDEM conference talk](https://video.fosdem.org/2019/UB5.132/community_supporting_foss_community_members_imposter_syndrome.mp4) on how to counter impostor syndrome. Mentors are encouraged to review the [Ada Initiative\'s training on overcoming impostor syndrome](https://adainitiative.org/continue-our-work/impostor-syndrome-training/) with their mentees if they notice their mentees exhibiting signs of
imposter syndrome.

# Payments, Extensions, and Terminations

Outreachy organizers view this internship as a fellowship. Our goal is to attract and retain people from marginalized groups with free software. Providing the intern with a positive free software experience is more important than finishing their project.

### Mentor Feedback

Outreachy mentors will be asked to review interns\' progress three times during the internship. Interns\' payments will be delayed if mentors do not send in feedback before the deadlines outlined on their dashboard.

Please consult the [Internship Guide](https://www.outreachy.org/docs/internship/#payments) for feedback deadlines. Here is our general feedback schedule:

- Initial feedback happens during the second week of the internship. Mentors evaluate whether their intern has been integrating with the free software community, responding to mentor communications, and spending a full-time (40 hours a week) effort in getting up to speed on their project.
- Midpoint feedback happens during the sixth week of the internship. Mentors evaluate whether their intern has been putting in a full-time (40 hours a week) effort, and making good progress on their project.
- Final feedback happens the week the internship ends. Mentors again evaluate whether their intern has been putting in a full-time effort and has made good progress on their project.

### Payments

On successful mentor feedback, the intern is paid the stipend associated with that feedback checkpoint (e.g. initial stipend, midpoint stipend, or final stipend).

Outreachy interns are paid according to the [intern payment schedule](https://www.outreachy.org/docs/internship/#payments). Their payment schedule may change if their internship is extended. In that case, the modified feedback and payment schedule will be visible on both the intern and mentor\'s [dashboards](https://www.outreachy.org/dashboard/).

Outreachy interns are paid by the Software Freedom Conservancy. Conservancy is Outreachy\'s fiscal sponsor and non-profit 501c3 parent organization.

Per the intern agreement, Outreachy interns are independent contractors for the Software Freedom Conservancy. They are not employees of either Outreachy, Software Freedom Conservancy, or any of Outreachy\'s sponsors.

### Intern Time Commitment

Interns are expected to work full-time on their internship projects. If an intern is not working full-time, mentors may want to ask for an internship extension.

Please [see the intern time commitment policy](https://www.outreachy.org/docs/internship/#time-commitment) for a definition of \"full-time\". The Internship Guide has details on how many hours per week interns are required to work.

It can be hard to determine whether an intern is working full-time on their project. They may be spending a lot of time working on their own. They may be doing research, learning about new topics, trying out new tools, or spending time understanding community norms.

With that in mind, it can be hard to determine exactly how many hours they are working. Signs of full-time work include:

- Participating in weekly check-in meetings
- Asking questions
- Picking up new concepts
- Trying new tools
- Clarifying project goals
- Draft contributions, either publicly submitted or in personal repositories
- Asking for review on draft contributions

It is okay for interns to ask the same questions multiple times. The mentor may need to explain the concept in a different way, or point the intern to different documentation or resources. The mentor may want to have a real-time, phone, or video conversation to clarify any confusion.

It is okay for interns to take time to produce contributions. The mentor may need to encourage the intern to push draft contributions to a personal repository. The mentor may need to review those draft contributions more frequently to ensure the intern is on the right path.

It is okay for interns to spend time learning. Outreachy encourages interns to learn new skills, new concepts, and new tools. Interns may show they are learning by mentioning new things in conversations with mentors. The key is for interns to communicate what they are learning or researching. Then the mentor can ensure they have found the correct resources and the intern is on the right path.

### Adjusting Project Goals

Outreachy organizers prefer not to extend internships or terminate internship contracts if interns are committing full-time. Therefore, we ask that mentors be flexible in the project work they accept:

- Mentors should not expect the project to be completed by the end of the internship
- Mentors will adjust the internship goals to fit the level of the intern\'s ability, their interests, and the project\'s priorities throughout the internship

If your intern is putting in a full-time effort, you should authorize payment of their initial stipend.

Do not request an internship extension only to get the project completed. Interns may choose to volunteer their time after the internship is complete, but it is not required by Outreachy.

### Internship Extensions

If an intern is not working full-time, the first option Outreachy organizers recommend is extending the internship.

An internship extension causes the internship time to increase. For example, a 1-week internship extension moves the internship end date by 1 week, and the intern will work 14 weeks rather than the standard 13 weeks.

Internships can be extended at three times during the internship:

- During initial feedback
- During midpoint feedback
- During final feedback

An internship extension also moves the due dates of the mentor feedback by a similar amount. For example, if the internship was extended by 2 weeks at the midpoint feedback, then the final feedback due date be 2 weeks later, and the internship would end 2 weeks later.

During feedback, mentors say how long they want the internship extended. An internship can be extended by up to five weeks in total. If an intern is not putting in a full-time effort, mentors typically extend the internship by 1 or 2 weeks. That allows the mentor to set expectations and gives the intern time to get back on track.

After the internship extension is finished, mentors will fill out the feedback form again. At that time, they can choose to pay the intern stipend, extend the internship further, or terminate the internship.

### Tips for Successful Internship Extensions

There are several things mentors can do to help get the internship back
on track:

- Set up a daily stand-up
- Have the intern state what they are working on every day
- Check-in more frequently to see if the intern is blocked or stuck
- Set up a real-time private chat to discuss new concepts
- Set up a paired session to work on contributions together
- Review draft contributions more frequently to ensure the intern is on the right track
- Find a co-mentor who can be available during the intern\'s working hours
- Find a co-mentor who is more experienced in the area the intern is working in

When requesting an internship extension, the mentors should provide concrete goals the intern needs to meet. When those goals are met, the internship extension is considered successful and the intern will be paid their stipend.

A concrete plan to get the internship back on track may include:

- The intern communicating daily about what they are working on
- The intern asking for help when they are stuck for more than 1-3 hours
- The intern providing draft contributions more frequently
- The intern creating a draft contribution for a particular work item

### Internship Terminations

Outreachy organizers prefer not to terminate an internship contract. We typically do not terminate unless the intern has been given at least one internship extension and is still not putting in a full-time internship effort.

#### Terminations & Internship Stipends

There are two ways to handle internship stipends when an internship contract is terminated:

- Pay the intern their stipend for the current feedback checkpoint
- Do not pay the current intern stipend

For example, a mentor may give the intern an extension at the midpoint feedback. After working during the two-week extension, the intern has put in enough effort to be paid the midpoint stipend. However, the intern is clearly not engaged in the work, and their communication frequency has not increased. The mentor feels it is likely the intern will not put in a full-time effort during the second half of the
internship.

In this first case, the mentor may choose to terminate the internship. The mentor requests that the intern be paid the midpoint stipend. However, the intern will not be paid their final stipend.

Another example is a mentor giving an internship extension at the initial feedback. In this case, the intern has not been communicating with the mentor. They are not responsive to mentor emails. They have been skipping meetings. When asked if they have questions or need help, the intern says they are doing fine. The intern asks questions that show they have not read the documentation that the mentor pointed them to. The mentor thinks they are not working on the project at all.

In this second case, the mentor may choose to terminate the internship. The mentor requests that the intern not be paid the initial stipend. The intern will also not be paid the midpoint and final stipend.

#### Discussing Internship Termination

We will discuss your request for this internship to be terminated with you before we contact your intern. We will work together to draft a response to your intern.

In some cases, interns may have unsubmitted contributions, or they may have been spending time alone doing research. In this case, they may make an appeal that they have been working full-time on the internship. Depending on the circumstances, mentors may choose to continue with the internship. In this case, we need mentors to fill out the feedback form again, in order to authorize stipend payment or to record another internship extension.