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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Hi
everybody,<BR><BR>It's very cold here. Time to start thinking about
summer!<BR><BR>The student proposals for Google's Summer of Code will be due in
a <BR>couple short months and Google has just given word that the program
<BR>will indeed be on again this year.<BR><BR>For 2008, we had a great turnout
of willing and able mentors, but only <BR>about 16 student applications.
This implies that we need to try to <BR>reach more students and encourage them
to apply for summer of code this <BR>year.<BR><BR>We'll probably start to see
more information from Google about SOC 2009 <BR>within a month or so. For
now:<BR><BR> </FONT><A href=""><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>http://tinyurl.com/9r55v3</FONT></A><BR><BR><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>Last year taught us that the returning organizations which started early
<BR>were more successful in recruiting students. While we can't say for
<BR>sure that Perl/Parrot will be accepted as mentor organizations, we'll
<BR>get a very late start if we wait. If it (knock on wood) doesn't
<BR>happen, the Perl community will still benefit from efforts to connect
<BR>with more students.<BR><BR>The following are just a few ideas of what your
local Perl Mongers group <BR>could do to help. Please forward this to your
mailing list or discuss <BR>it at your next meeting.<BR><BR>Find out if your
local university has Perl in the curriculum. If so, <BR>get in touch with
the professors and let them know about your local <BR>Perl Mongers group.
Ask if they would be interested in you speaking to <BR>their class or giving a
presentation on-campus.<BR><BR>If the computer science department doesn't seem
interested in Perl, you <BR>might find users (or potential users) in other
departments. Think <BR>about all of the niche data-crunching for which
Perl gets used. Find <BR>grad students who might be doing that - whatever
their major might be.<BR><BR>Are any members of your group recently
graduated? If so, the contacts <BR>they still have might be a great place
to start, especially in non-cs <BR>disciplines. Even in very specialized
applications, the chances are <BR>that the Perl community contains a mentor with
a related background.<BR><BR>Finally, I would be interested in hearing from any
Perl Mongers groups <BR>which have been involved with on-campus activities or
are meeting on <BR>campus. Please send me mail about what you are doing,
or even write <BR>about it on use.perl.<BR><BR>Thanks,<BR>Eric<BR>--<BR>Request
pm.org Technical Support via </FONT><A href=""><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>support@pm.org</FONT></A><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>