Grants:PEG/Keilana/Loyola Women in Science and Math Workshop


Funded
This submission to the Project and Event Grants Program was funded in the fiscal year 2013-14. This is a grant to an individual.

IMPORTANT: Please do not make changes to this page without the explicit approval of Project and Event Grants Program staff. They will be reverted.


Basic information

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Project details

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Official project name

Loyola Women in Science and Math Workshops

Project start date (include month, day, and year)
October 1, 2013
Project completion date (include month, day, and year)
December 1, 2013
Please describe the project in 1–2 sentences
Over the course of the fall semester we will conduct 3 workshops in November, beginning November 2, to improve content about women scientists and mathematicians and encourage college-aged women to edit.

Financial details

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Currency requested
US Dollars
Amount requested in currency requested
$420
Equivalent amount in US$ on the date of this submission
n/a
List the exchange rate used to calculate the amount listed in US$
n/a

Project lead details

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See the eligibility requirements for more information.

Are you an organization, an individual, or an individual submitting on behalf of a group?
Individual
Project lead name
Emily Temple-Wood
Project lead username or email
en:User:Keilana (keilanawiki gmail.com)

Goals and measures of success

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Project goal

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Please briefly describe what will be accomplished if the project is successful.

Project goal
The goal of this project is to pilot a program designed to improve content on the English Wikipedia about women in STEM fields and to encourage college-aged women to edit those articles through a partnership with the Loyola Women in Science and Math (WISAM) group. It will also train a group of young women to edit and enable them to edit on their own. The ultimate goal is to create a model for similar programs at other institutions. (NB: Men who are interested in writing about women scientists will of course be welcome, but the event will be targeted to women.)


Measures of success

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Please provide a list of measurable criteria that will be used determine how successful the project is. You will need to report on the success of the project according to these measures after the project is completed.

Measures of success
We will consider this project a success if:
  1. At least 15 people show up to each workshop
  2. At least 5 people come more than once
  3. At least 3 articles are brought to the DYK section from work done at the workshops
  4. At least 2 women are trained to teach others basic editing skills

Project scope and activities

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This section describes what will happen if this project is funded. Who will do what, and when?

List of activities
Keilana has already secured the support of the WISAM group and their assurance that they will provide her with a space and work with her to advertise the events to members and non-members. Funding for the project will pay for food from a local establishment in order to encourage students to come to the events and stay long enough to accomplish something meaningful.


Budget and resources

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Please provide a detailed breakdown of project expenses according to the instructions here.

Grantees are subject to line-item scrutiny of expenses. Changes to the approved budget beyond 10% in any category must be approved in advance.

Project budget table
Number Category Item description Unit Number of units Cost per unit Total cost Currency Notes
1 Food Catered food from a local restaurant (probably pizza or pasta) 3 meals 20 people/event (60 total) $7 $420 USD I have examined local restaurant options and $6-7 a person is the cheapest we can find.
Total cost of project
USD$420
Total amount requested from the WMF Grants Program
USD$420
Additional sources of revenue that may fund part of this project, and amounts funded
n/a

Non-financial requirements

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See a description of nonfinancial assistance available. Please inform Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) of any requirements for non-financial assistance now.

Requests for non-financial assistance
We would like 8 Wikipedia T-shirts to distribute to anyone who comes to more than one event, as an additional incentive for people to return. We have already contacted WMF about the shirts.


Resources

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This section is optional. It may be used to highlight the potential grantee's potential for successfully executing this project.

Consider including the following information:

  • List of team members (names or usernames):
  • Onwiki evidence of community support (such as a project about this discussion):
  • Endorsements from community members or movement groups:
  • Special skills or qualifications this potential grantee or project lead brings to this project:
  • Evidence of past success in executing similar projects:
Resources
en:Wikipedia:WikiProject Women scientists is an onwiki community working together on this body of content; the Worklist is a resource for choosing articles to write and a supportive group for people learning to write about women scientists. I founded this project with Sarah Stierch last fall and am very well versed in writing biographies of female scientists, having saved a top-importance article at FA and having written 1 GA and 10 DYKs in the subject area.
I have more than 6 years of experience editing Wikipedia, and have been an administrator on English Wikipedia for 6 years. I have the technical skills and knowledge to successfully guide other college-aged people through the editing & learning process. I also have two semesters of experience as an Online Ambassador for the US Education Program, which has given me tools and methods for teaching college students how to edit.
WISAM, with its wide interest base (Loyola is mostly science majors and 65% female) is fully invested in this project. They are designing and spreading flyers and other informational material, and securing space for these events on campus. The president and math chair of the organization have already committed to learning editing skills ahead of the event to better facilitate it.
Wikiparties (as outlined in this blog post) have been proposed as a method for encouraging greater involvement of women, but it has not been tested on a larger scale. This pilot provides that opportunity.
I have significant experience running editing workshops for professional scientists, which will translate to working with the college population.


Impact

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In the sections below, please describe how the project is related to the Wikimedia mission and Wikimedia's strategic priorities.

Fit to strategy

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How will this project support the key organizational objectives of
  • increasing reach (more people will access or contribute to Wikipedia or our other projects),
  • participation (more people actually contributing),
  • quality (more content, more useful content, or higher-quality content),
  • credibility (more trust in our projects),
  • organizational maturity and effectiveness (how it will move you or the Wikimedia community forward),
  • or financial sustainability (how it will help you achieve more in the long run)?
This statement should address at least one of the strategic priorities listed here specifically. See WMF Grants Program criteria for decisionmaking.
This project will help with the objectives of participation and quality with its dual focus on creating high-quality content and high-quality contributors. By providing a regular space for people to contribute, along with a clear goal for each session, these workshops will encourage new contributors to return and learn new skills each time. Since the sessions will be advertised to women and focus on writing about women, it is likely that the majority of participants will be female. Using incentives like t-shirts to motivate a college-aged population (attracted by free stuff) to return for more than one session will also help to cultivate regular contributors. The focus of each workshop will be writing at least one new article about a woman scientist, so everyone can experience the effervescent collaboration that makes Wikipedia wonderful and so that content can be checked, ensuring that the articles that get moved to mainspace are of good quality.


Benefits

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If the project will benefit a specific online community, please tell us.
This project will directly benefit the English Wikipedia, as we expect to create more articles about women scientists and recruit women editors, reducing the systemic bias and gender gap on the project.


Please provide a brief statement about how the project is related to other work in the Wikimedia movement. For example, does the project fit into a work area such as GLAM, education, organizational development, editor retention, or outreach?
This project is aligned with outreach initiatives to other groups of women and will hopefully retain some of them, making it applicable to editor retention programs as well.


If successful, will the project have the potential to be replicated successfully by other individuals, groups, or organizations? Please explain how in 1–2 sentences.
The goal is that this project will succeed and be replicated by similar women’s groups at other universities. I would like to take what we learn from this local pilot and create materials and documentation to allow other groups to host similar workshop series consistently; this is the subject of an IEG proposal.


Please list other benefits to the movement here.
This project will increase the number of editors in Chicago and help build what is currently a small community there.
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