google summer of code
"The Summer of Code is Google’s program designed to introduce students to the world of open source software development.
This summer, don’t let your programming skills lie fallow. Use them for the greater good of open source software and computer science. Google will provide a $4500 award to each student who successfully completes a project by the end of the summer."
http://code.google.com/summerofcode.html
UPDATE: i have applied for a project at apache, i will implement mail searching for their java based mail server james - in case they take me 
i really hope they do…
