My Outreachy Journey: Building with Servo
Hi, I’m Usman, a Computer Science graduate from Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria, and a new Outreachy intern with Servo! My love for tech started at 11 when a family friend gifted my dad a desktop computer. I still chuckle at my first computer lab experience a year earlier—meant to open MS Word, I accidentally launched Pinball, couldn’t exit, and got a stern look from my teacher. That mix of curiosity and intimidation sparked a lifelong passion. After graduating, I felt unfulfilled despite achieving my dream degree. I craved hands-on building but was overwhelmed by self-learning—front-end, back-end, data analytics, tutorial after tutorial. I eventually found my niche in back-end development, building APIs for personal projects. My journey shifted gears when I joined a fast-paced Bitcoin blockchain internship, diving into Rust, bash scripting, and RPC calls. Though that internship ended early, it ignited my drive to seek mentorship and community, leading me to Outreachy.
I discovered Outreachy through a Bitcoin internship group chat after most of us were laid off. Having never been mentored or part of a tech community before, I was eager to apply. I approached the process with faith, passed the initial stages, and entered the contribution phase. Servo—an embeddable browser engine written in Rust—caught my eye immediately. Fresh from learning Rust, I felt it was the perfect fit. Servo offered two projects: implementing a network monitor developer tool and improving code linting in CI. I chose the former, drawn to its challenge and relevance.
The contribution phase was a steep learning curve. I reached out to my mentor, who was incredibly supportive, guiding me to a starter task to familiarize myself with the devtool codebase. I deepened my Rust knowledge, explored Servo’s architecture, and honed my GitHub skills through pull requests (PRs). My proudest contribution was fixing colorSchemeSimulation. to toggle between dark and light themes for active browser tabs. As my first PR, it required multiple smaller contributions to get right, but seeing it merge felt incredibly rewarding.
This internship is a pivotal step in my career discovery. I thrive on learning, and Outreachy offers the perfect environment to grow—mentorship, community, and real-world impact. I’m excited to work on Servo’s network monitor, exposing network events to help developers debug web requests. I look forward to mastering Rust, contributing to an open-source project that powers the web, and building skills that will shape my future as a back-end developer. Here’s to an impactful 12 weeks!