Edit 2023/Taking Wikipedia Along: Initiating Wikipedia Education Program Without A Community: 2024/Main Page

This submission has been accepted for WikiConference North America 2023.

As a Wikipedia volunteer and community leader over the last 7 years, moving from my home country, Ghana where I was immensely involved in my local Wikipedia chapter to the United State meant an end to my active involvement in the community or so I thought. After my first semester in graduate school in the US almost a couple of years ago, I began researching and planning on how to engage in Wikimedia activities at a new place with no Wikimedia presence and no understanding of the Wikimedia community and operations. I then decided to initiate a Wikipedia in the classroom project since I am an instructor and through the Wiki for Human Rights campaign which would help provide a structure to my project and would enable me obtain support to run the event. As a Graduate Teaching Instructor, I harnessed my experience as a Wikipedian with the support of my community back home to organize the Wiki For Human Rights Campaign involving my students to learn about the Wikimedia initiatives and contribute fact-checked environmental and climate content about the State of New Mexico to Wikipedia in exchange for credits. This campaign is particularly important to my students and the State of New Mexico because it allowed the students to obtain new skills other than their regular course while contributing content about the current environmental state of New Mexico. I am in my second year as the only organizer of the campaign in North America and I will be sharing my experience in embarking on this journey in a location with no Wikimedia presence and away from my Wikipedia family. Additionally, I would discuss how to leverage college students and Wikipedia campaigns for advocacy, capacity building and contribution to Wikimedia Projects for others who move away from their local communities.