Hello! Thanks for checking this post, I'm Jhan Silva, a Platform Engineer/Student from El Salvador, this is my blog/experience of my first time attending a KubeCon + CloudNativeCon in 2021 (Los Angeles).

Everything started with an email from CNCF on the last day of August 2021, telling me that I was provisionally selected for the Diversity & Inclusion scholarship, thankfully I was able to meet the prerequisites to travel and I was able to use this incredible opportunity. Talking a little bit about myself at that moment I was a volunteer for the CNCF San Salvador at that moment, that is our own chapter of CNCF over there. Now, I'm a co-organizer of the chapter and we are really helping the community in El Salvador to get involved with IT and Cloud-Native products that are really helping to boost people's lives over there.

The process to apply, and to claim the scholarship was a really smooth process, basically, there are multiple ways to apply; whether it's needs-based or diversity and inclusion or applying like a student, there is an opportunity for everyone.

When I claimed the scholarship I was amazed at how easy was to register for the events and thankfully the Linux Foundation scholarship also included a pass for a co-located event, I chose Service Mesh Con that was going to take place in LA as well.

I arrived in LA on the 10th of October 2021, it was all new for me, the city, the LA vibes, the good food (tacos are awesome down there btw).

I went the first day of the KubeCon to register and I encountered a really nice registration experience, a really great and non-intrusive COVID vaccine registration system.

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I got my badge that obviously I still keep as a treasure and good reminder of my experience, and then the experience started!

I attended a lot of talks and breakout rooms, the experience and knowledge shared over there was just amazing. Definitely, there is always something new to learn over there, also this is a great opportunity to catch up with new technologies that are coming up and people are using more often and often.

Also, this is a great opportunity for you if you want to make networking, I met a lot of friends, I was able to meet in person with my friend Raul Flamenco, we both organize the CNCF chapter in El Salvador, so this was a great experience to catch up with him and also plan our future plans for our CNCF chapter in San Salvador, El Salvador (new blog posts are coming around that topic).

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I really want to thank the Cloud Native Computing Foundation for this awesome event and also to Linux Foundation for this incredible and life-changing experience. If you are reading this and you are thinking about applying I really encourage you to do it, it's going to be an experience that is really going to boost your professional life and will help you to expand your horizons in Open Source.

Thank y'all for reading!