The Linux Foundation recently announced its 2014 Linux training scholarship winners.This year marked the strongest demand we’ve ever seen for this program with more than 1,000 applications received. Reading through the submissions it became clear that learning Linux is widely recognized as a smart strategy for building a successful career. From every corner of the world, up and coming developers and sysadmins want to be able to tap into this massive opportunity. This is also represented in our Intro to Linux MOOC as well with nearly 300,000 registrations from more than 100 countries.
This year’s winners have already taken the initiative to learn a bit about Linux and to apply that knowledge in both interesting and inspiring ways. Please meet this year’s scholarship recipients and connect with them on LinkedIn.
Sandeep Aryal, Nepal, SysAdmin Super Star. Sandeep is a systems administrator for the Nepalese government and plans to use the knowledge he gains through his scholarship 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. He is 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 his scholarship 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 plans to use the knowledge from a Linux Foundation training course to encourage more women to pursue careers in IT.
“I have gone through many struggles, from working my way up the IT industry to becoming a US citizen,” said Alyson. “I think that anyone is capable of anything, as long as the drive is there. I would like to think my struggles and achievements will show other women they can become anything they want to be.
We need more women in IT, and if I can light a spark to just one woman I will feel I have passed on the torch for the next generation of women in IT.”
Christoph Jaeger, Germany, Linux Kernel Guru. Christoph has been using Linux since college and submitted his first patch one year ago. He says 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. (not pictured)
“In October 2013, while I was developing a small device driver for a German notebook vendor, I stumbled upon a bug in the kernel. A bug that has been there for years and affected several other drivers as well,” said Christoph. “I fixed it and submitted a patch. My heart was jumping with excitement when sending the patch. A few days later the patch was accepted and applied. That patch changed just a single line of code. But hey, a single line of a system that runs on millions of devices ranging from wristwatches and washing machines to TOP500 supercomputers. A system used by millions of people around the world, whether they are aware of it or not. A system considered the largest, most complex collaborative development effort in history! How cool is that? I was proud as hell, and still I am.”
John Mwenda, Kenya, Whiz Kids. John is a fourth-year Computer Information Systems student at Kenya Methodist University. In his spare time he volunteers to teach Linux to children and has started a project to digitize the Kenyan constitution so it can be accessed easily and freely by everyone.
For more information on Linux Foundation training or certifications, please visit http://training.linuxfoundation.org