Linux Foundation Announces 2014 Linux Training Scholarship Recipients

DUSSELDORF, GERMANY--(Marketwired - Oct 14, 2014) -   LinuxCon and CloudOpen - The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux and collaborative development, today announced the recipients of its annual Linux Training Scholarship Program.

The Linux Foundation scholarships offer funds to developers and IT professionals who show interest and promise in becoming more active in and knowledgeable about Linux and open source development but cannot otherwise afford to attend a Linux Foundation training course. Each scholarship recipient will have the fees of one training course covered for them.

This year saw record interest in the scholarship program, with more than 1,000 entries received across five categories. This is almost a 50 percent increase over 2013. The most popular submission category was SysAdmin Super Star, followed by Developer Do-Gooder and Whiz Kids. Applications were submitted from six continents, and applicants averaged 29 years of age, showing the prevalence of interest in Linux from across generations and geographies.

Scholarship recipients in each category are as follows:

Sandeep Aryal, Nepal, SysAdmin Super Star. Sandeep is a systems administrator for the Nepalese government and has a baseline level of knowledge about Linux. Sandeep hopes to use the knowledge he gains through a Linux Foundation training course to encourage government offices in Nepal to move to open source software.

Eudris Cabrera, Dominican Republic, Developer Do-Gooder. Eudris is a software developer for the Dominican Ministry of Finance and teaches Linux at Open University. Eudris is also creating a small data center in a rural area to increase Internet access to 300 local students. He plans to share the information he learns from a Linux Foundation training course with his students to help open source adoption to expand in the Dominican Republic.

Alyson Calhoun, United States, Women in Linux. Alyson started her IT career as a Windows systems administrator but quickly transitioned to working on Linux. She was recently promoted to Linux engineer at her company and plans to use the knowledge from a Linux Foundation training course to encourage more women to pursue careers in IT.

Christoph Jaeger, Germany, Linux Kernel Guru. Christoph has been using Linux since college and as his knowledge and experience have grown, he has worked towards becoming an active member of the Linux community. He submitted his first patch one year ago, and the thrill of having it accepted has lead to several dozen more patches. He hopes a Linux Foundation training course will help him to contribute at an even higher level.