Google Summer of Code Certificates for Colleges/Universities

[Daniel Pronych]

I would like to make a suggestion that Google considers making up a
certificate for a Google Summer of Code student's college/university.
I obtained this inspiration when one of my program instructors sent me
a personal email to congratulate me for my involvement in Google
Summer of Code, and from his own words, how it "puts a feather in
everyone's cap" -- which made me think, schools would be proud to
accept this form of certificate from Google and how this could help
raise and strengthen student awareness of the Summer of Code program.
Additionally, this would raise a school's own awareness of Google's
investment into their students that successfully completed the Summer
of Code program.

My original thought was how this could be addressed to a specific
department of a school, but it may be better to address it to the
school as a whole or to a particular campus of the school (in my case,
for example, my school has 4 campuses across my province and my
particular program is only available at one of them).

I would suggest the certificate would contain something like the
following information:

"This is to certify that at least one student* from this school/
department has successfully completed involvement in Google Summer of
Code program for this year."

* I think it may be best to keep student names off of this certificate
to give highlight to Google Summer of Code program and the school
(also due to the fact that any number of students that successfully
completed Google Summer of Code could be from the same school/
department). Though, I would conclude this aspect would be best
handled by Google's own judgment.

I would be curious of the input others would have on this idea.
Thanks again Google for this wonderful program I have definitely
enjoyed the time I have been able to invest into it and thank you for
carrying it on again for another year!

[vassil.stoyanov]

Yeah, I also think this is splendid idea.

[Leslie Hawthorn]

On 3/28/07, vassil.stoyanov <vass...@gmail.com> wrote:

Yeah, I also think this is splendid idea.

I also dig this idea.  :)  Let me talk to Tiffany, as she's our design goddess.  That means all of you GSoC students are going to be on the hook to get us in touch with your university Computer Science departments so we can send them the certificate for your school. 

And no, you don't have to be a computer science student to be a student participant in GSoC.  We're also happy to send the certificate to your university Biology, Mining Engineering or Computational Linguistics department, too.

Cheers,
LH 

[Mihai Balan]

too cool :)

[Alex Pico - GenMAPP]

The idea is cool, but the student is perhaps being too modest. I
think from the perspective of the school or department, they would
love to have the student's name on the certificate. It acknowledges
their hard work and makes it easier for future students to identify
with it and get motivated to apply in future years. So, I'd just add
to the idea that the content should acknowledge both the particular
student and the school. I could picture departments collecting and
framing these certificates (possibly mulitple per year). This would be
a great advertisement for GSoC too, of course :)

-Alex

[Sage La Torra]

If students were named on the certificate, it seems like it might be
better to put all the names from one school (or one department at one
school) on the same certificate. Just a suggestion.

Sage

[i-nZ]

On Mar 28, 6:58 am, "Daniel Pronych" <quadr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I would like to make a suggestion that Google considers making up a
> certificate for a Google Summer of Code student's college/university.
> I obtained this inspiration when one of my program instructors sent me
> a personal email to congratulate me for my involvement in Google
> Summer of Code, and from his own words, how it "puts a feather in
> everyone's cap" -- which made me think, schools would be proud to
> accept this form of certificate from Google and how this could help
> raise and strengthen student awareness of the Summer of Code program.
> Additionally, this would raise a school's own awareness of Google's
> investment into their students that successfully completed the Summer
> of Code program.
>

I am quite impressed that your lecturer or supervisor (I am not sure
what program instructor stands for) is aware of the existence of GSoC.
It's not quite the case in my university or in a couple of other
universities of friends of mine. :-)
I personally don't see universities being that proud of having a GSoC
*participation* certificate. It's not a competition, so they can't
show off. :-) Students are the ones that will have benefit from
receiving a certificate. If you want to raise the student awareness of
the GSoC problem put up some posters in your departament. If you want
to raise the departament awareness go talk to key personas and
introduce them to the availability of the GSoC summer activity and the
benefits it introduces to the students and hope that your university
is Micro$oft-free, because Micro$oft universities are mostly and
sometimes only about Micro$oft events and activities really...

Regards.

[Leslie Hawthorn]

Hi Alex,

On 3/28/07, Alex Pico - GenMAPP <ap...@gladstone.ucsf.edu> wrote:

Also not a bad idea.  Thanks!

Cheers,
LH

[Leslie Hawthorn]

Hi Sage,

On 3/28/07, Sage La Torra <sag...@gmail.com> wrote:

If students were named on the certificate, it seems like it might be
better to put all the names from one school (or one department at one
school) on the same certificate. Just a suggestion.

Sage

Yep, good point.  We'll have to think designing this through a bit more.  Assuming we have the bandwidth to do this.  But I really hope that we do.  :)

Cheers,
LH