Add blog wrap-up lfx term2

content/blog/summarizing-ying-zhu-lfx-mentorship/index.md

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+---
+title: "Beyond the Patch: Continuing our LFX Mentorship"
+date: 2025-08-14
+draft: false
+image:
+    url: patch.png
+    attribution:
+author: fdrees
+tags:
+ - mentorship
+ - lfx
+ - cncf
+ - PostgreSQL
+ - Kubernetes
+summary: "This summer marked our first time joining the CNCF’s LFX mentorship program—and 
+it was such a great experience that we couldn’t wait to share it with you."
+---
+
+This Summer we participated in the Cloud Native Computing Foundation's mentorship 
+platform LFX [for the first time](https://cloudnative-pg.io/blog/lfx-cncf-mentorship/). We thought it was a great experience, 
+which is why [we're participating again in the cohort that is starting in September](https://cloudnative-pg.io/blog/2025-term3-lfx-cncf-mentorship/). 
+
+Curious about our work with [Ying](https://cloudnative-pg.io/blog/contributor-highlight-ying-zhu/)? Read on!
+
+## Summer 2025: Declarative Management of Foreign Data Wrappers
+
+Ying Zhu ([EdwinaZhu](https://github.com/EdwinaZhu) on GitHub), a student at Carnegie Mellon University, was 
+immediately drawn to CloudNativePG when she was looking for CNCF (Cloud Native 
+Computing Foundation) projects to contribute to, since she’s already involved in 
+the PostgreSQL _and_ Kubernetes communities.
+
+Ying worked on implementing [“Declarative Management of PostgreSQL Foreign Data 
+Wrappers”](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg/issues/8063). The project aimed to extend the CloudNativePG operator to support 
+declarative configuration of foreign data wrappers through its Database custom 
+resource. 
+
+## On mentoring
+
+Four CloudNativePG maintainers, Gabriele Bartolini, Leonardo Cecchi, Marco 
+Nenciarini, and Armando Ruocco, supported Ying in her journey.
+
+Gabriele shares how Ying worked hard, studied diligently, sought feedback, 
+and grew visibly throughout the program. "Her curiosity, passion, and initiative 
+stood out, and I hope that the psychologically safe environment we tried to 
+create played a key role in her progress." Gabriele is confident Ying will 
+continue to make valuable contributions to the project and the wider community.
+
+Reflecting on the collaboration, Leonardo said:
+
+> "She is not only a skilled engineer who writes beautiful code, but she also 
+brought many new, innovative ideas—and even sparked a few in us. Working with 
+new people is always an enriching experience for everyone!"
+
+Leonardo knows the value of mentorship from both perspectives. Professionally, 
+he has helped colleagues transition into new roles. Personally, he experienced 
+the impact of early guidance when his father taught him programming as a child 
+and continued to support him throughout his career.
+
+Looking back, there’s one piece of advice Leonardo wishes he had received early 
+on—well, two, actually. First: the true purpose of software is to help people. 
+Second: always weigh the value of the code you write—how much it helps—against 
+the effort it takes for you and your team, both now and in the long-term 
+maintenance of that code. A topic of much discussion in the CloudNativePG Slack. 
+
+## What's next?
+
+Ying has done an outstanding job with her initial mentorship commitment, and 
+[the patch](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg/pull/7942) she 
+has provided is almost ready to be merged—after the release of version 1.27.0 
+the pull request will be incorporated into v1.28.
+
+We're so happy to work with Ying that we've decided to extend the mentorship 
+project (which ends on Aug 29) to its next phase, focusing on foreign servers 
+with issue [[Feature]: Declarative support for foreign servers #8063](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg/issues/8063), 
+which will presumably enter 1.28 too.
+
+More to come!