Fellows testimonials

What did last year’s fellows have to say about the fellowship? Our Class of 2014 brought together a diverse set of individuals, in terms of skillsets and backgrounds, and they all took away various learnings and lessons from their time with us.

“I love being a fellow. There’s lots of work that I’ve been able to do because of being a fellow; it gave me support, as there’s a big community behind me, which gives people faith and trust in what I’m doing. I also enjoy learning about the experiences of different fellows. Each trip I’ve done has taught me so much. I feel like being a fellow, we’re doing good things; teaching data skills like this is a form of activism – we’re getting people involved in political processes.”

Antonio Cucho Gamboa, Peru

“I always felt that Open Data was only for those who had great technical skills and that it was something I could never do. It has been half a year since I first attended an OKFworkshop and now I’ve conducted one along with my mentor. It’s unbelievable! What’s even greater is that all of this happened with the support of an open global community – where people were just happy to help and collaborate online. I didn’t need a special master’s degree or whatever to learn something. I found that all the things I wanted to learn more about were already written in a shared document or captured in a video skillshare. If not, all I had to do was ask.”

Happy Feraren, the Philippines

“Over the past few months, I’ve been working with Publish What You Pay here in Indonesia. After just a few of trainings, I was so happy to see that they created, and published, their own visualisations with their own data — without any help from me!”

Yuandra Ismiraldi, Indonesia

“Basic understanding of how to use spreadsheets for data management and maintenance is largely lacking in Indian non-profits. I’ve found that working with people on simple things like how to use spreadsheets effectively can completely transform their relationship with data.”

Nisha Thompson, India

“Together with SocialTIC, I carried out workshops in Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. I realised that Mexico is the leader in lots of things in Central America- but that we need to support other countries across Central America more. Being a School of Data fellow, and having the institutional support and the brand behind me has given me lots of opportunities; it has meant that people are more interested in what I’m doing”

Ruben Moya, Mexico