Welcome Julie Hill

[su...@apache.org]

I'm very excited to see all of the new subscribers.  I'd like to welcome 
Julie Hill to the list.   Her bio and interests are below:


> I read a posting on LinuxChix advertising a new list dedicated to
> encouraging women to participate at the Apache Software Foundation.
> The post said that subscriptions are moderated and I should write a
> few lines about why I'm interested, so here goes...

> I'm a professional Java software engineer. I had a mid-life career
> awakening and went back to school for a Masters degree in CS. I've
> been programming professionally now for 5 1/2 years.

> I've been very interested in contributing to open source projects, and
> have spent hours and hours pouring over various open source projects,
> reading email archives, looking at help-wanted posts, trying to get a
> feel for the communities, hoping to find a fit somewhere. It's
> overwhelming in a lot of ways, and I don't have any friends or
> co-workers who are already involved in projects and could provide a
> little encouragement and mentoring. I signed up for one new project on
> Source Forge that I thought sounded really interesting and didn't
> already have an established community, but then it piddled out and
> never even got close to the coding stage.

> I've given this a lot of thought and I think the main reasons I
> haven't found a place to contribute are 1) apprehension about fitting
> in with the pre-existing tight communities, 2) a concern that I won't
> have enough spare time available so that I'd feel I'm contributing my
> fair share to that community, and finally 3) I've had to overcome
> insecurities about my skills and realize that yes, a middle-aged woman
> can step into a new life and become a top-notch programmer, there are
> no rules against that.

> I was very pleased to learn that someone at Apache is interested in
> encouraging women to contribute. I use Apache software every day on
> the job and at home and have the highest regard for it. I hope you
> will subscribe me to this list so I can have an opportunity to see if
> I might fit in somewhere.

> Thank you,
> Julie Hill


"We must be the change we wish to see in this world." - Ghandi
and, of course,
"I think, therefore, I yam what I yam." - Popeye on Descartes :)