University of New Mexico Students Participate in The #WikiForHumanRights Campaign 2023 For The Second Time

Students numbering 22, participated in a 2-day Wikipedia session dubbed, #WikiForHumanRights New Mexico 2023 where they were scored extra credit as part of a Spring Semester course.

It is widely known that the State of New Mexico grapples with several environmental challenges caused by industrial pollution and other harmful pollutants. This is further heightened by seasonal fire outbreaks often caused by extreme drought and climate change.

Participants contributed content (articles and images) about New Mexico portraying the beautiful, forested mountains while creating new articles and improving on existing content on environmental issues.

“I thought to edit Wikipedia you would have to have a degree so was surprised how easy it was to edit. I felt like it was fun to contribute to the site.” says Kelsey, a participant of the training.

Sophia added that, “It is astonishing to me how easy it is to upload images and to edit things on Wikipedia.”

 After contributing to Wikipedia, I hope that my images uploaded to the campaign will be useful to other users,” she concludes about her first experience contributing to the campaign and Wikipedia in general.

The project was led by Pamela Ofori- Boateng, a long-term Wikipedia editor and a Graduate Teaching Assistant at UNM, Jesse Asiedu Akrofi, founder of Wiki Update podcast, Francis Quasie an award-winning community member, with the support of other volunteers.

Engaging in the Wiki For Human Rights campaign is an effort to create awareness and introduce Wikimedia to college students enabling them to harness Wikipedia as both a pedagogical tool and as a way to contribute to issues affecting their community.

By Pamela Ofori-Boateng