📅 April 2, 2025 – Onboarding & First Community Interactions

Just two days after my GSoC acceptance, the reality of the opportunity began to sink in.
On April 2, 2025, I officially began the onboarding process for my project with the Scala Center.

This was the first true step into the contributor role—and it felt real, exciting, and energizing.

🛠️ Getting Set Up

The first task?
Setting up my local development environment for the LLM4S repository.

I cloned the repo, followed the setup guide, installed dependencies, and tested example scripts to get familiar with the code structure. It was cleanly written, modular, and well-commented—a joy to read.

📚 I also made a separate Notion workspace to:

• Track tasks and milestones

• Document learnings

• Log community conversations

💬 First Interactions with the Team

I was added to private Discord channels and GitHub boards. The Scala Center team was incredibly welcoming, especially Kannupriya Karla, who offered quick onboarding tips and project expectations.

We discussed:

• 🗺️ Project goals and deliverables

• 🧩 First tasks to focus on

• 🔁 Communication rhythm (weekly check-ins, GitHub updates, etc.)

This wasn’t just technical onboarding—it was relational. I wasn’t a contributor on paper. I was now part of a team.

📘 Documentation Contributions

As I explored the codebase, I spotted a few places where beginner-facing documentation could be improved. I opened a pull request with better inline comments and a minor doc update—my first contribution to LLM4S.

That small act gave me confidence:

✨ “I may be new—but I can already add value.”

💡 Lessons from Onboarding

🔹 Take ownership of your learning.
🔹 Communicate early and clearly.
🔹 Ask questions—don’t hesitate.
🔹 Even a tiny PR can be a meaningful start.

🧠 Reflections

This phase helped me shift my mindset from student to collaborator. I wasn’t just preparing anymore—I was participating.

If you’re starting your GSoC onboarding, remember:
🧭 It’s okay to feel overwhelmed. Just start. One task. One message. One step.