Welcome to the Wikipedia Education Update — a newsletter from the Wikimedia Foundation that is distributed the first and third Tuesday of each month. Someone from our staff has talked with you about our Wikipedia Education Program to bring Wikipedia into higher education classrooms around the world, and we wanted to keep you in the loop on all of our exciting activities. If you would prefer not to receive these messages, simply reply to the email and ask for your address to be removed. Learn more about subscribing or read the archives.

Charles University supports education program
In a statement released this month, the rector of Charles University in Prague, His Magnificence Vaclav Hampl, gave his official support to Czech education program, called "Students Write Wikipedia" (Studenti píší Wikipedii). The statement reads, in part, "This highly appropriate, useful activity has my unequivocal support. I would like to encourage all those who, in the course of their pedagogical activities or studies, or in their free time, contribute to Wikipedia. I would recommend that all pedagogues at the University consider whether involvement in the ‘Students write Wikipedia’ project would not be a suitable way of supporting their educational goals." Read the full statement.

Namibia program provides update
Peter Gallert wrote a post for the Wikimedia blog on his efforts to introduce Wikipedia editing to teachers in rural Namibia. Peter, who teaches at Polytechnic of Namibia, offered training to teachers at the Epukiro Post 3 Junior Secondary School in the Omaheke Region of Namibia, and he and the participants created the article about the school on the English Wikipedia. Read more about the work he is doing in Namibia.

Welcome, Sophie Österberg!
Sophie Österberg has joined the Wikimedia Foundation's Wikipedia Education Program team as the global education program manager. Sophie comes to us from Wikimedia Sweden, where she ran their education program. Sophie will be working with education program leaders around the world to foster and support the use of Wikipedia as a teaching tool globally. Please welcome Sophie by leaving a message on her talk page!

Wikimania education pre-conference scheduled
Are you attending Wikimania 2013 in Hong Kong? Join us for a pre-conference specifically about education and Wikimedia projects on August 7. We're interested in tailoring the agenda to be what our attendees are most interested in learning — and presenting. Fill out this interest form to help us craft a great agenda.