Wikipedia Education Program/News/6 March 2012

Brazil Pilot kicks off next term with six classes

The Brazil Pilot is starting this week and next in 6 classes in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Last Saturday, local Brazilian Wikipedians led a training for the all-star cast of professors and Campus Ambassadors. Wikipedians across Brazil and Portugal are also expressing their support for the program by serving as Online Ambassadors. We are excited by the potential for great improvements in the Portuguese Wikipedia in many different topic areas this semester, including Physics, Ancient History, Public Policy, and Sociology. Learn more by checking out the courses page (in Portuguese).

WMF blog highlights status of program worldwide

The Wikimedia Foundation blog featured a post on the kickoff of the Wikipedia Education Program for this term in many countries throughout the world. In the blog post, representatives from the United States, Canada, Egypt, Germany, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, and Mexico all report on the current status of their programs. Read the post.

Welcome, Essam Sharaf!

Essam Sharaf (no, not the former prime minister of Egypt, but someone who shares his name) has joined the Education Program team as the Cairo Outreach Coordinator. An experienced Wikipedian, Essam is serving in this role part time as he continues his studies at the Kasr ElAini School of Medicine at Cairo University. His role as a Cairo Outreach Coordinator is to organize and test several types of outreach events in Cairo to create excitement around Wikipedia, encourage more people to actively contribute to and edit Arabic Wikipedia, and introducing the newbies to the current existing community. Essam's work will serve as a guide for the future path of the Arabic Catalyst Project. See Essam's plan for outreach efforts.

Welcome, Rob Schnautz!

Essam isn't the only new member of the team. We're also pleased to announce that Rob Schnautz has joined us half-time to fill our Online Communications role for the English Wikipedia. Rob has been editing Wikipedia as User:BobTheWikipedian since 2006, and he self-identifies as a WikiDragon, working mostly with the Tree of Life WikiProject. He also helped develop the automatic taxobox system. In 2011, he became the Regional Ambassador for part of the Midwest, and he joins the team now to serve as a liaison between the existing editing community and the Education Program team. Send a warm welcome to Rob at his user page.