Google Summer of Code is an initiative that connects talented college computer programming students worldwide to open source programming projects, allowing them to grow their programming skills while contributing to open source. Under the guidance of a mentor, students are able to earn up to $5,500 for successful completion of their programming goals (the other $500 is donated to the organization mentoring the student). This initiative is growing a whole new crop of talented coders with a passion for open source, who themselves will be spreading the open source way throughout their professional careers.