As an undergraduate computer science student, Antonia Gaete focused on completing homework assignments and lab work. Trudging through the quarter system, Gaete’s life was filled with strict guidelines designed to pass specific grading test scripts. While solving these puzzles was fun, the tasks felt narrow in scope. Skills like building data structures in C or creating a website with JavaScript had greater potential—and Gaete wanted to find out what that was.

Students from the Doha campus at Carnegie Mellon University participated in a university partnership program where they were mentored by OpenStack Swift contributors. The first time a UPP has focused on Swift! Mentors, Matthew Oliver and Tim Burke summarized their experiences with the students.