Awarding OpenMRS Fellowships

Background

The OpenMRS Fellowship Program is lucky enough to offer fellowship opportunities to promising OpenMRS contributors each year. The number of available fellowships varies from year to year, depending on funding and project needs. We typically receive more applications than available fellowships. The criteria and process for awarding these fellowships is outlined below.

Fellowship Application Reviewers

Depending on the number and nature of the fellowships we offer, 5-8 people dedicate 4-5 hours of their time to reviewing Fellowship Applicants. These people meet the following criteria:

Familiar with OpenMRS
Spends a majority of his/her time on time on OpenMRS
Has experience and knowledge relevant to the type of fellowship offered (PM, dev, CM, QA, etc)
Dedicate sufficient time to review each fellowship application
Has previously been involved in the design and/or implementation of the fellowship program
Can fairly make a decision based on merit
Is willing and able to keep information confidential
Is not applying for a fellowship

Reviewing & Selecting Fellows

We often receive more fellowship applicants than we have available fellowships. Here are the main steps that the Fellowship Application Reviewers take to select fellows:

Review fellowship applicants using the Fellowship Application Rubric
Invite the top 2-4 candidates for a 30 minute informational interview with the community
Gather and review all feedback on top candidates
Recommend the top candidate for each fellowship to OpenMRS Inc's Executive Team
OpenMRS Inc's Executive Team notifies the top candidate

Fellowship Application Rubric

The Fellowship Application rubric is a scoring guide used by reviewers to assess a fellowship application against a set of criteria.

Area	Strong (4 points)	Good (3 points)	Average (2 points)	Limited (1 point)
Cover Letter	Provides clear reason for being a fellow or mentor Aligns experience with OpenMRS mission Identifies ways the fellowship relates to current OpenMRS-related activities and future goals Describes how s/he will contribute to the community	Provides clear description of interest in being a fellow or mentor Identifies ways fellowship relates to current OpenMRS activities Describes how s/he will contribute to the community	Provides a description of interest in being a fellow or mentor Unclear how fellowship relates to current or future OpenMRS activities	General interest in being a fellow or mentor Does not relate fellowship to current or future OpenMRS activities
Professional experience	4+ years of experience in software development, project or product management, quality assurance, community management, or subject matter expertise (i.e: terminology, standards, microfrontends, security, DevOps, etc) Experience strongly aligns with the role's qualifications Has considerable experience with processes, tools, and technologies used by the OpenMRS community Has experience with similar projects Demonstrates initiative to identify different problems and proposes effective solutions for those problems Dedication to the OpenMRS mission, vision, and values Applies open source principles Experience working independently and as a part of a team	3 years of experience in software development, project or product management, quality assurance, community management or subject matter expertise (i.e: terminology, standards, microfrontends, security, DevOps, etc) Experience aligns with the role's qualifications Has some experience with processes, tools, and technologies used by the OpenMRS community Has a little experience with similar projects Takes some initiative to identify different problems and proposes effective solutions for those problems Dedication to the OpenMRS mission, vision, and values Open to exploring and applying open source principles Experience working independently and as a part of a team	2 years of experience in software development, project or product management, quality assurance, community management or subject matter expertise (i.e: terminology, standards, microfrontends, security, DevOps, etc) Some experience aligns with the role's qualifications Has a little experience with processes, tools, and technologies used by the OpenMRS community Has been exposed to similar projects Takes a little initiative to identify different problems and proposes effective solutions for those problems Dedication to the OpenMRS mission, vision, and values Somewhat open to exploring and applying open source principles Some experience working independently and as a part of a team	Less than 2 years of experience in software development, project or product management, quality assurance, community management, or subject matter expertise (i.e: terminology, standards, microfrontends, security, DevOps, etc) Experience does not align with the role's qualifications Has no experience with processes, tools, and technologies used by the OpenMRS community Unclear if they have experience or exposure to similar projects Unclear if they have the initiative to identify different problems and proposes effective solutions for those problems Dedication to the OpenMRS mission, vision, and values Not open to exploring and applying open source principles No experience working independently and as a part of a team
Community involvement	Contributed to or followed Talk or Slack discussions on relevant OpenMRS topics or projects Contributed to discussions about specific projects Completed several tasks around the community Attended and contributed to relevant OpenMRS team or squad calls.	Contributed to or followed Talk or Slack discussions on relevant OpenMRS topics or projects Attended relevant OpenMRS team or squad calls. Completed to different community tasks/tickets	Not active on Talk or Slack Did not attend any community calls. Worked on tickets or issues around the community.	Never participated in any activity of the community
Mentorship	Experience mentoring others	Some experience mentoring others	Little experience mentoring others	No experience mentoring others