Dear Wikimedia & Education Community,
I'm so excited to introduce you to Vasanthi Hargyono, the newest Program
Officer on the Education Team at the Wikimedia Foundation. 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!
best,
Nichole
--
*Nichole Saad*
Wikimedia Foundation | Senior Program Manager, Education
nsaad(a)wikimedia.org
user: NSaad (WMF)