Announcing the GopherCon Scholarship Program

Today I’d like to announce the GopherCon Scholarship Program. It’s goal is to increase the visibility of women in the Go community through the most direct path I can imagine: sponsoring their attendance to GopherCon 2014.

I’ve purchased the first ticket for GopherCon Scholarship out of my own pocket. I need to come up with a way to award it to a deserving Go community member who wants to attend GopherCon. I’m asking for your suggestions - email me (bketelsen@gopheracademy.com) and tell me what you think the scholarship program should do to find and select candidates for the scholarship.

Call to Action

This is where I ask you to help. Once I have a list of candidates, I hate to have just one ticket to give. I’m asking you to join me in purchasing a ticket for a deserving Go developer. Let’s make GopherCon — and the Go community in general — the most inclusive and welcoming place for all people to learn this awesome language. Personal donations are awesome, companies can join in too.

Implementation

I created a special class of tickets and put them up for sale. Now I need to find some sort of selection process to match the tickets purchased to the candidates. I’m setting a goal of ten ticket sponsorships. I bought the first, so we need nine more. If you buy the tickets, I’ll ensure that they go to the right people!

Watch this Space

I am using this announcement to solicit feedback on the selection/nomination process for this scholarship. As we solidify a plan, I’ll post more on how to apply or nominate someone for the scholarship. Thanks for reading this far, and thanks for helping to make GopherCon awesome.

Ready to Join Me?

Use this link to buy a sponsored ticket now.