Education/News/June 2019/Welcome Vasanthi

Welcome Vasanthi to the Education Team!

Summary: The Wikimedia Foundation Education Team welcomes Vasanthi Hargyono!

Hi everyone!

I'm so excited to introduce you to Vasanthi Hargyono, the newest Program Officer on the Education Team. Vasanthi will be supporting our team by working with the community to create evaluation plans and tools for Wikimedia in education, and using that evidence to design more engaging storytelling and advocacy resources.

In her own words:

Hi everyone! I’m very glad to be a part of the Wikimedia Foundation and look forward to working with the Education team.

The first time I was introduced to Wikipedia editing was back in 2011. In 2013, my previous workplace shared an office space with the Wikimedia Indonesia team and I started to discover other Wikimedia projects and initiatives, such as GLAM, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons. Given the similar nature between Wikimedia’s work and my work at the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team at the time, I was intrigued by Wikimedia' initiatives and now I am excited that I get to join the Wikimedia movement!

My education and work background are a combination of geography and community development fields. In my previous work, I managed participatory community development and university programs using open source mapping technologies for humanitarian and economic development purposes across Indonesia. I also volunteered with children and education programs in several underprivileged regions.

After six years full-time in the field I decided to further my knowledge by taking on a masters degree in development studies at the University of Melbourne. During my two years of studying, I focused on community development and grew my interest towards impact measurement. I realised the importance of being relevant to local context and collaboration with local stakeholders as some of the important keys to achieve and sustain programs’ impacts in the community.

In my free time, I enjoy reading books, sketching, and watching dog videos online. I’m also a big fan of Formula 1 racing. If your country happens to host a grand prix, I might come and visit during the season!

Please feel free to reach out to me. Aside from English, I can speak Bahasa Indonesia, Sundanese, Malay, and I’m learning Swedish!

Please join me in welcoming Vasanthi to the Wikimedia Foundation!

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