This is the home of the Make Community team for the WordPress open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project!
Here is where we have policy debates, project announcements, and assist community members in organizing events.
Everyone is welcome to comment on posts and participate in the discussions regardless of skill level or experience.
Get Involved
If you love WordPress and want to help us do these things, join in!
Back in April, we introduced the WordPress Facilitator Training Program: a free, open, community-powered path for anyone who knows WordPress and wants to teach it. There’s no application or gatekeeping; just a course, a facilitation guide, and the confidence to run your own workshop.
Five months in, here’s where things stand.
What’s Actually Happened
The program launched with one course, Leading WordPress Education Programs, and the plan was always to pilot it at one campus, then validate at two more. That’s exactly how it’s played out.
@devmuhib (Muhibul Haque) ran the first pilot, delivered online to two schools in Bangladesh: Ahmad’s Education and Kishoreganj University, 7 attendees across both sessions. Ahmad’s Education has since grown into a full WordPress Credits program, 5 graduates so far, with one, Atikur Rahman, now leading the school’s student club. Kishoreganj University is now a part of WordPress Credits.
@webtechpooja (Pooja Derashri) delivered our first official in-person workshop at D.Y. Patil School of Engineering & Management in Kolhapur, India (July 23–24). The Kolhapur visit opened conversations with the HOD, Dean, and Vice Chancellor about bringing WordPress into their curriculum, which is exactly the institutional buy-in this program is meant to unlock.
Both Muhibul and Pooja are facilitators who’d never run this program before, working from nothing but the course and the facilitation guide. That’s the whole premise working as intended, and the loopLoopThe Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop keeps tightening: Pooja’s feedback after her workshops added a way for facilitators to flag technical issues, an open-ended comment field, and a “would you recommend this” question, which all now live in the form. Muhibul’s feedback opened up the online delivery format, and both shaped the program language to allow for Facilitators to be flexible with the teaching content.
A Note on Program Leadership
@webtechpooja is stepping in as lead for the Facilitator Training Program going forward. If you have questions, want a workshop scheduled, or are thinking about facilitating for the first time, she’s the person to reach.
Leading WordPress Education Programs: a 9-module self-guided course plus a full 2–3 day facilitation guide This course is aimed at teaching educators how to own the WordPress Education Programs within their own educational institutions.
AI Literacy through WordPress: a 3-module self-guided course plus a full 2–3 day facilitation guide. This course is aimed at university students and early-career professionals, no prior AI or WordPress experience needed. This will also be the program’s first credentialed course, a portfolio- and credential-ready complement to the AI Leaders micro-credential, and the model going forward: every new topic we add to this program should carry or work toward a recognized credential, not just knowledge for its own sake.
Come in as a learner and start with the course, or come in with existing expertise and start from the facilitation guide directly, see the handbook’s “Two Pathways In” for how that works.
Thank you to everyone who’s put this program into practice this year, especially Muhibul Haque and Pooja Derashri, for running these workshops and telling us honestly what needs to change. 🙂
Last Saturday, August 29, we had the opportunity to host WordPress Campus Connect UCR Esparza, an event that brought together students, professors, and members of the WordPress community for a day filled with learning, projects, talks, and, above all, community.
But the story of this event began long before that Saturday.
Students, Community and Teachers posing for the photo
Building Partnerships from the Start
One of the first steps in making the event a reality was finding sponsors who wanted to support the initiative. Together with my team, we visited different local businesses in person to share our idea, explain what WordPress Campus Connect was about, where and when the event would take place, and, most importantly, why we believed it was important to create this kind of space for students.
Some of these businesses decided to believe in the project and become our sponsors. From that moment on, we stayed in close contact with them and received their support throughout the entire organization process.
One of our sponsors also gave us a valuable opportunity to conduct interviews with different members of the team, where we were able to explain what the event was about, its purpose, and what we hoped to achieve. This helped us introduce the initiative to more people and expand our reach before the big day.
A Day to Learn, Share, and Create
Finally, Saturday, August 29, arrived.
During the morning, we welcomed participants as they arrived to take part in the experience. The event brought together 45 people, primarily students from different universities in the area.
The day began with several talks. We had two WordPress professionals who shared their knowledge and experiences, as well as students from different fields who had the opportunity to share their own perspectives and what they had learned.
We also had a coffee and snack break during the morning, giving participants an opportunity to meet one another, have conversations, and begin building new connections.
Giveaways, Piñata, and Community
Beyond the learning experience, we wanted the event to have the fun and welcoming spirit that makes our community so special.
Before lunch, we held a raffle with prizes made possible through the support of our sponsors. Then, during lunchtime, we had one of the most fun moments of the day: a piñata! 🎉
It was a chance to relax, spend time together, and enjoy ourselves after a busy morning of activities. We also provided lunch for all participants, thanks to the support that helped make the event possible.
WordPress Campus Connect UCR Esparza Participants
Student Projects
One of the most important moments of the day was the presentation of the projects developed by the students.
These projects did not happen overnight. The participants had previously taken five workshops and spent several weeks developing their own ideas and building their websites.
During the event, they had the opportunity to present the results of all their hard work to a jury made up of two professors and one member of the WordPress community.
Four students were ultimately recognized and awarded for their projects. These prizes were made possible thanks to one of our sponsors and the budget we were able to raise for the event.
But there was something even more special: all the students who presented their projects received a ticket to attend WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Costa Rica 2026, taking place this September. This means that the learning and connection with the community do not end with Campus Connect, but can continue at the next major WordPress gathering in Costa Rica. 🇨🇷
An Afternoon Full of Ideas
The afternoon continued with a series of lightning talks, featuring students and members of the WordPress community. We had three presentations that offered different experiences and perspectives in a dynamic and engaging format.
We also had a second snack break, which once again became an opportunity to talk, share experiences, and strengthen the connections among participants.
To wrap up the day, we held the remaining raffles, with prizes once again made possible through the generosity of our sponsors and the support of the event coordination team.
More Than an Event
WordPress Campus Connect UCR Esparza was much more than a one-day event.
Behind those hours of talks, projects, prizes, food, and laughter were weeks of planning, finding partners, communicating with sponsors and participants, organizing workshops, and working together as a team.
It was also an experience led by five female students from the University of Costa Rica, @lornamurillo@mpaulaos@brittanygarcia@luzfp06@alimezg who took on the challenge of managing the entire organization process. From planning and coordination to the design and creation of the event materials, the team was involved in every detail: T-shirts, pins, keychains, and other elements that helped give WordPress Campus Connect UCR Esparza its own identity.
In the end, we brought together 45 people and created a space where students, professionals, professors, sponsors, and community members could come together around something we all share: the desire to learn, create, and contribute.
A huge thank you to all the sponsors, students, professors, community members, and everyone who contributed to the coordination and organization of the event. Without their support, trust, and enthusiasm, WordPress Campus Connect UCR Esparza would not have been possible.
From the early planning stages to the day of the event, they were there every step of the way, offering their guidance, support, ideas, and encouragement. Having people who believed in the initiative and were willing to be there throughout the journey made a huge difference.
Thank you for being there from beginning to end and for helping us turn this idea into reality. We truly appreciate your time, support, and commitment to making this experience possible
WordPress Community
What Comes Next?
If there is one thing this experience taught us, it is that you don’t have to wait for someone else to take the first step.
If you are a student and there are people at your university, in your city, or in your community who are interested in learning, creating, and sharing around WordPress, you can take the initiative and create a space like this too.
What if the next Campus Connect starts at your university?
An idea can begin with just a few people, a conversation, and the desire to do something different. With the support of the community, local partners, and sponsors, that idea can grow into an event that helps other students discover new skills, build confidence, and connect with new opportunities.
So, if you have an idea for bringing WordPress Campus Connect to your area, take that first step! The next group of students ready to learn, create, and share might just be waiting for an initiative like yours.
Oli otya, and hello. Here’s what organizers have been running around the world, plus what’s worth trying next.
WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. US opens Sunday
WordCamp US 2026 runs August 16 through 19 in Phoenix, opening with Contributor Day on Sunday. Tell your group about it even if nobody can travel, because Contributor DayContributor DayContributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/ is where a lot of people make their first contribution to WordPress and no experience is required. There is a Connector Table for anyone who arrives not knowing where to start.
Three events you could run, from easiest up
A WordCamp is not the only kind of WordPress event, and it is not the one most groups should start with.
Coffee and Code: The handbook’s description is hard to argue with: it “can be done in a coffee shop or any space where you can get coffee and they will let you use their wifi.” No speaker, no budget, no projector to fail on you. If your group has gone quiet, this is the one that restarts it. Eight more like it are in the event formats handbook.
A translation session: The Chiba group in Japan translates English documentation into Japanese together. They have done it about once a year for four years. The next is August 23, and it needs no speaker either. An evening turns into a contribution that stays on the site.
Walk into the college near you: Universidad del Valle de Guatemala hosted the country’s first Campus Connect on August 1. Nine teams spent half a day building sites for their own student associations, 44 students and 10 mentorsEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. in one room. It takes real planning, but the Community Team walks you through it.
Group of the Month: Bulamogi College Gadumire, Uganda
Bulamogi College Gadumire (Uganda)
Their Campus Connect lost electricity partway through. No laptops, no slides, nothing to project. The team taught WordPress out loud to about a hundred students instead, finished the session, and everyone walked out with certificates. The room was the point.
Also worth knowing
Your meetupMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. group can have its own channel in Make WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/:
The Community Team is creating channels for local meetup groups, locale communities and flagship events. To get one, join #community-slack-migration and post your group name, your Meetup.com URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org, and the channels you want. Your existing message history can come with you, and Karen Arnold’s post covers the rest.
Eleven ready-made sessions you can run without building one
Learn WordPress just published hands-on activity kits, built for exactly the meeting you do not have time to prepare. Eleven are live, each running 60 to 90 minutes, and each is a single download holding a facilitator guide and a slide deck. The guide already has the learning objectives, the setup notes, the step-by-step activities and the debrief questions in it. Pick one and run it. The announcement has the full list.
Tip of the month for sustainable events:
Check whether your venue has somewhere people can refill a water bottle. The Sustainable Events Handbook asks for “a system for refilling water bottles that doesn’t rely on drums,” one of the few venue questions that costs nothing and cuts real waste.
Worth watching
Why the path from a classroom to a contributor matters.
Event formats in the handbook, and most need no speaker at all.
100
Countries with a WordPress meetup group, across 707 groups.
0
Laptops at Bulamogi’s Campus Connect after the power cut. They ran it anyway.
MeetupsMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. of the Month
WordPress Meetup Shanghai (Shanghai, China)WordPress Nairobi Meetup (Nairobi, Kenya)Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (Guatemala)Campus Connect Tegal (Tegal, Indonesia)Chiba WordPress Meetup (Chiba, Japan)WordPress Brisbane Meetup (Brisbane, Australia)Campus Connect Kyoto University of Advanced Science (Japan)Campus Connect Kolhapur (Kolhapur, India)WordPress Vadodara Meetup (Vadodara, India)WordPress Kolhapur Meetup (Kolhapur, India)Campus Connect Kishoreganj (Bangladesh)
Local meetups run in far more places than this. Everything, everywhere, is on events.wordpress.org.
Open calls for speakers:
Worth passing to your group. Someone who has never spoken before is usually one nudge away from it, and a first talk at a nearby WordCamp is how a lot of organizers started.
Not a talk, but the same shape: the WP Credits developer track wants input from developers and teachers by the end of August.
Over to you
What is the smallest event you have run that still felt worth doing? Tell us what it was and who showed up, and we will run the answers next month. Reply in the comments below, in #community-events, or by email to support@wordcamp.org, whichever you already use.
This newsletter is built from what you share!
Send your recaps and photos and your group goes in Meetups of the Month. Every group that shares one is included, so ask your group’s permission and send it. Group of the Month is for a story another organizer can learn from, and you can put any group forward including your own.
Did we miss your event? Possibly, and we would rather know. Each issue is built from what gets posted in #community-events and #campusconnect, so anything that did not land there is invisible to us. Send it over and it goes in the next issue.
Tell us what you want to read here too. If there is a section missing, a format you want explained, or a question you wish someone would answer, say so and we will build it into the next issue.
Each issue opens with a greeting from a language spoken where one of the featured groups is based. This month it is Luganda, from Uganda. If you would like your language to open an issue, tell us.
Thanks for everything you do to grow and support the WordPress community.
WordPress Credits is working. Students around the world are contributing to real projects, earning academic recognition, and graduating with a WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ profile they can point to. What we have not built yet is what happens after that.
Right now, graduates leave the program with no defined next step. That means a lot of the momentum we built together such as the onboarding, the mentorship, the contribution work, stops at the exact moment a graduate is most capable of giving something back.
The tracking issue for this work is on GitHubGitHubGitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by the repository owner. https://github.com/: https://github.com/WordPress/Community-Team/issues/1083
What We Are Proposing
We want to move WordPress Credits from a one-time experience to the first step in a longer contribution and career pathway. The proposal has three phases, starting with lightweight infrastructure changes and building toward a self-sustaining pipeline.
Main takeaways:
Give every graduate a clear next step. Right now the wrap-up flow ends without directing graduates anywhere specific. We want to change that with discipline-specific routing: dev-track graduates get pointed toward a WordPress Developer Certification and jobs.wordpress.net. Other tracks get equivalent routing based on what they contributed during the program.
Build a credential pathway graduates can see. The arc we are working toward: WordPress Credits (contribution program) → continued contribution → Developer credential received → ecosystem opportunity. We want graduates to be able to see the full path at the moment they finish the program, not discover it piece by piece after the fact.
Ensure students see their place in our contributing community. The arc we are working toward: WordPress Credits(contribution program) → continued contribution → peer mentoring → community leadership
Create scoped graduate contribution projects with Make teams. One of the most consistent barriers to returning is not knowing where to start. We want to work with Make WordPress teams to identify and tag real, appropriately scoped tasks that graduates can pick up. These are not new contribution areas — they are existing work made more accessible as a defined entry point.
Connect graduates to ecosystem opportunities. We are in conversations with ecosystem companies who have expressed interest in the WP Credits talent pipeline. The model we are exploring: companies fund certification exam seats for graduates, with one verifiable post-graduation contribution unlocking the seat. In return, companies get first access to graduates who pass and warm introductions to strong candidates. We are also pointing graduates to jobs.wordpress.net, where their WordPress.org contribution profile functions as a verified, public portfolio.
What We Are Looking For from the Community
This proposal touches several parts of the WordPress community, and we would love input before we move into execution:
Make team members: We want to collaborate on scoped graduate contribution projects: real tasks your team needs done, tagged as appropriate entry points for graduates returning to contribution. If you are on a Make team and interested in being part of this, please comment below or reach out in #wpcredits.
Ecosystem companies: If your company hires WordPress talent and is interested in exploring the exam seat model, we would love to talk. You can comment here or reach out directly.
Experienced contributors: If you have been through a structured contribution program yourself, whether WordPress Credits or something similar, we would love to hear what would have brought you back after graduation, and what would not have.
The full proposal includes a phased timeline, a tiered definition of what “returning to contribution” means, a 25% Tier 2 retention target for the dev-track pilot (benchmarked against comparable open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. programs), and a research foundation grounded in what has worked at LFX Mentorship, Outreachy, and GitHub Campus Experts.
We are not building everything at once. Phase 1 is infrastructure and one re-engagement message. Phase 2 is the dev-track pilot. Phase 3 is expansion to other tracks.
Feedback at any of these stages is welcome.
Questions or thoughts? Comment below or join the conversation in #wpcredits on the Making WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.
For the past year we have been telling the story of WordPress Credits through updates and posts: students turning open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. experience into skills that launch careers, institutions building contribution into their teaching, mentorsEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. guiding it all. Starting today, you don’t have to take our word for it.
TheWP Credits dashboardis now live, and it shows the growth and impact of the program as it happens: students enrolled, institutions involved, contributions flowing into WordPress, new sites built and skills unlocked, plus testimonials from the people living the experience. Data refreshes weekly, pulled directly from our program records and WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ profiles, so what you see is always the current state of the program.
Join us
The dashboard is public, and so is the invitation. There is room for you in this program:
Universities and schools: bring real open source contribution into your curriculum and give your students experience they can stand behind. Find out how you can launch your WordPress Credits program and fill out our interest form, and we will get in touch.
Companies: sponsor the program and connect with an emerging generation of WordPress talent.
Take a look at the dashboard, share it with a school or company that should be part of this, and come build the next generation of WordPress contributors with us.
See you at WCUSWCUSWordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event.
If you are coming to WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. US, this is the easiest way to start the conversation. We will be at the Education Table during Contributor Day on Sunday, so come sit with us, explore the dashboard together, and see how you or your organization can get involved. The rest of the days you will find us around the venue, and we are always happy to talk students, schools, and contribution, so if you spot us (@peiraisotta and @gomp), stop us. We also deeply hope to meet in person some the students and mentors behind the numbers on the dashboard.
Activity kits are now live on Learn WordPress, and we want to make sure community members know about them!
A WordPress activity kit is a complete, ready-to-run session package for anyone (event organizers, facilitators, instructors, etc) who wants to teach about WordPress topics. Each kit includes a facilitator guide and slide deck, all within a single downloadable zip. This is everything you need to run a hands-on session without preparing materials from scratch. All kits are designed to work in WordPress Playground (no installation or accounts required) or an equivalent free environment, run in 60–90 minutes, and produce something tangible by the end.
Contributor Onboarding: Participants explore the Make WordPress contributor pathways, create the accounts they need, and make their first real contribution before the session ends. (60 minutes, Beginner)
Accessibility Testing in WordPress: Participants use the AccessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) Checker pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. to scan a page for issues, fix three common problems in the BlockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor, then test the page using only a keyboard. No prior accessibility knowledge required. (60 minutes, Beginner)
Content Creation: Participants work through the full content lifecycle in WordPress — structuring posts with blocks, managing images accessibly, organizing with categories and tags, scheduling, and recovering from mistakes using revisionsRevisionsThe WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision.. (60 minutes, Beginner)
Debugging for Site Owners: Participants learn a repeatable, tool-backed approach to diagnosing and fixing the most common WordPress problems, without needing FTPFTPFTP is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol which is a way of moving computer files from one computer to another via the Internet. You can use software, known as a FTP client, to upload files to a server for a WordPress website. https://codex.wordpress.org/FTP_Clients access, server knowledge, or a developer on call. (60 minutes, Beginner–Intermediate)
Debugging for Developers: Participants work hands-on with four complementary debugging tools: WP_DEBUG, Query Monitor, browser DevTools, and Xdebug, and learn to match the right tool to each type of problem. (60 minutes, Developer)
eCommerce with WooCommerce: Participants learn about various WordPress eCommerce offerings in the ecosystem and configure WooCommerce using the setup wizard, add their first product, and complete a test purchase from store to confirmation page. (60 minutes, Beginner–Intermediate)
Managing Your WordPress Site with AI: Participants use Claude Desktop and the WordPress MCP Adapter to manage a local WordPress site entirely through natural language conversation. Note: this kit requires a local WordPress environment and Node.js 22+. (80 minutes, Beginner–Intermediate)
SEO Foundations: Participants audit the SEO features built into WordPress coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., evaluate whether their site needs an SEO plugin, and configure the essentials using RankMath in WordPress Playground. (60 minutes, Beginner–Intermediate)
Using AI in Your WordPress Dashboard: Participants set up the WordPress AI plugin, connect it to a free AI provider, and use it to draft, revise, and summarize content without leaving the editor. (60 minutes, Beginner–Intermediate)
WordPress Playground: Participants explore WordPress Playground for safe testing, version testing, and environment sharing — and leave with a shareable Playground link they built themselves. (60 minutes, All levels)
WordPress Security Essentials: Participants audit a WordPress site’s security posture, apply essential hardening steps, and learn what to do when something goes wrong. (60 minutes, Beginner)
How to use a kit
Visit learn.wordpress.org/activity-library, choose a kit, and download the zip. Each kit page includes an overview of the activity, a preview of the facilitator guide and slide deck, and a download button for the full kit. The facilitator guide includes everything you need to run the session: learning objectives, setup notes, step-by-step participant activities, facilitator tips, and debrief questions.
You do not need to be a WordPress expert to facilitate these sessions. The kits are designed to be used by anyone interested in teaching and learning about WordPress.
Help us build and maintain the library
We have eleven kits live and we want more. Here’s how you can get involved:
Facilitate a kit at your next event. Download one, run it at your local meetupMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook., and tell us how it goes through our feedback form. Post in #community-team or #training on Making WordPress Slack with what you tried and what landed.
Create a new kit. The Training Team has published a step-by-step handbook guide covering everything from topic selection to publishing on Learn WordPress. You can create a kit using the AI prompt package (compatible with Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, and others) or the Claude Cowork plugin — both are available in the WordPress/Learn GitHub repository.
Flag something that needs updating. Notice a broken step, an outdated plugin version, or a path that has changed since a kit was published? Post in #training with what you found. Keeping the kits current is an ongoing team effort.
Thank you to our MetaMetaMeta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. team folks who helped get the Activity Library live on the Learn WordPress website by reviewing, providing guidance, and merging: @obenland@adamwood@paulkevan@dd32
Did I miss you? It wasn’t intentional! Please send me a pingPingThe act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” so I can ensure you’re noted <3
What we’ll work on: the handbooks restructure proposal, picking up the audit work and moving pieces of it forward together.
Format: short kickoff to align on what we’re tackling, then a focused work blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience., then a quick wrap-up on what got done and what’s still open.
This is a first test of the new format, so expect some rough edges, and feel free to just show up even if you haven’t been involved in the handbooks proposal before. All you need is some available time and curiosity.
We’ll follow up here with a short recap after the session.
Welcome to the Monthly Education Buzz Report, your go-to source for highlights and updates on the WordPress Campus Connect, WordPress Credits, and WordPress Student Club education initiatives within the WordPress community. This report aims to celebrate, promote, and inform individuals across the WordPress community and beyond about the diverse educational endeavors underway.
WordPress Campus Connect
WordPress Campus Connect (WPCC) had a busy July, with new campuses joining the program on four continents. If you would like to help shape one of these events, join the conversation in #campusconnect on the Make WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.
Bangladesh saw two more campuses join WPCC Kishoreganj 2026, organized by Muhibul Haque (@devmuhib). The first event, held at Kishoreganj University, brought speakers Nasim Miah (@muddassirnasim) and Mehraz Morshed (@mehrazmorshed) together with volunteer Mehrab Morshed (@mehrabmorshed). for a session on the WordPress ecosystem, careers, and open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. contribution. Students there built 38 websites. Two weeks later, the series moved to Kishoreganj Polytechnic Institute, where speaker Shipon Karmakar (@shiponkarmakar) traveled more than 80 kilometers to join as a guest expert and students built nearly 70 websites. Across the two campuses, the success stories page now lists more than 200 participating students and over 100 published sites, with two more institutions, Government Mohila College and Pouromohila College Kishoreganj, still to come.
Japan held its second Campus Connect event of the year at Kyoto University of Advanced Science on July 4. The session was organized entirely by students from the campus’s Open Source circle, with Kaito Hanamori (@kaitohm) sharing the recap and thanking staff members Hiroshi Sato and Shohei Tanaka for their support.
In Spain, Josep Morán (@josepmoran) led a Campus Connect at Escola Pia Sta. Anna in Mataró for 100 higher-level vocational students studying network management and marketing. Over two four-hour sessions, students compared WordPress.comWordPress.comAn online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ and WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/, learned about WordPress Credits and WordPress Student Clubs, and used Playground and AI assistance to build a functional pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. that calculates the best time for shore fishing in the city. Students and faculty alike called out the career opportunities tied to the WordPress ecosystem and the official certificate they received.
Uganda’s Central and Eastern Uganda schools series added Bulamogi College Gadumire on July 29, and the full recap is worth reading in full. Organizer Moses Cursor Ssebunya (@mosescursor) and his team lost power on arrival, so they scrapped the planned demonstrations and instead opened the floor to questions from more than 100 learners. Fellow organizer Stephen Dumba, national coordinator of the ICT Teachers Association of Uganda, stepped in to keep the group focused once the power went out. The room, in the organizers’ words, “exploded” with curiosity, and first-time volunteers Mariam Nairuba and John Wayera helped carry the day. The school’s governing body received a Certificate of Appreciation in return for hosting.
A few more campuses are moving through planning, including a first-ever event proposed for Penang, Malaysia, by Ben Leow (@surf7net) ahead of WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Asia 2027, and an event at UVG Guatemala coordinated by Lidia Arroyo Vargas (@lidarroy). If you have a connection to a college or university and want to help bring WordPress to campus, the #campusconnect channel is the place to start.
Kyoto University of Advanced ScienceKyoto University of Advanced ScienceWPCC Kishoreganj 2026WPCC Kishoreganj 2026Campus Connect Escola Pia Sta. Anna MataróCampus Connect Escola Pia Sta. Anna Mataró
WordPress Credits
WordPress Credits kept building on its first-half momentum in July, with two new pilot projects, a call for a developer track, and a preview of what the program will bring to WordCamp US.
July was the strongest month of the year so far by several measures, according to an update from Maciej Pilarski (@gomp). Partner institutions grew from 28 to 38, up 10 in a single month and now spanning 16 countries, with 18 more institutions entering the pipeline, the strongest intake month of 2026. Active mentorsEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. reached 91, up from 83 in June, on the strength of 11 new mentorEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. applications, while 62 new students started their WordPress Credits internship, the second-largest monthly intake of the year after May. Graduates reached 226, up from 199 in June, with 26 more students in pending graduation. Two applications that came out of the WordCamp Europe Education Table in Kraków, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences in Finland and SAE Athens in Greece, are now confirmed partners, and Institut Teknologi Tangerang Selatan in Indonesia became the first Campus Connect host school to convert into a WordPress Credits partner institution, signing on July 20 after hosting a Campus Connect event on June 18. That signing also gave Indonesia its first spot on the partner map. Separately, CUNY City Tech signed on as the program’s first partnership with a public university system in the United States, arriving just ahead of the WordCamp US Contributor DayContributor DayContributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/ push.
Rita Robles Loaiza (@roblesloaiza) shared the first two pilots she has been running as Program ManagerProgram ManagerProgram Managers (formerly Super Deputies) are Program Supporters who can perform extra tasks on WordCamp.org like creating new sites and publishing WordCamps to the schedule. for WordPress Credits in Latin America. The first grew out of Patrones Hermosos, an international camp run by Tecnológico de Monterrey and MIT that came to Costa Rica for the first time this year. Three students from the second WordPress Credits cohort at Universidad Fidélitas designed and delivered a three-session WordPress workshop for 40 high school students, who each built and presented their own website by the end, with a 100 percent satisfaction rate. The team turned that experience into a fully replicable guide that any student, university, or local community can reuse. The second pilot brings Liceo Experimental Bilingüe José Figueres Ferrer, the first high school in the Americas to join WordPress Credits, into the Polyglots contribution area, where 13 students are working with the Costa Rican Spanish Polyglots teamPolyglots TeamPolyglots Team is a group of multilingual translators who work on translating plugins, themes, documentation, and front-facing marketing copy. https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/ to localize WordPress.org into es_CR as part of their community service program.
Universidad FidélitasUniversidad Fidélitas
The program is also looking ahead to a developer-focused track. A US college has expressed interest in WordPress Credits but needs a path built around real, job-relevant development work, and the call for input is open now. The team is looking for ideas on what a beginner-to-advanced tier structure could include, with the first tier needed by the end of August to keep the pilot on schedule. You can weigh in through the GitHub issue or in #wpcredits on Slack.
Looking toward WordCamp US, the Education working group announced a dedicated table at Contributor Day on August 16 in Phoenix. Isotta Peira (@peiraisotta) and Maciej Pilarski (@gomp) will be on hand throughout the event to talk through WordPress Credits, Campus Connect, Student Clubs, Faculty Training, and the new AI Literacy through WordPress course on Learn WordPress. The group is looking for US-based mentors, connections to local meetupsMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. for students, introductions to colleges and universities, and companies interested in sponsoring the programs.
July also brought a steady flow of new students into the program, joining from Nepal, Costa Rica, Spain, India, and the US, including a professor at Drew University in New Jersey who found the program through a WP Tavern Jukebox episode featuring Ivana Ćirković. Among them, Víctor Rodríguez of Universidad Fidélitas in Costa Rica wrapped up his internship with the Polyglots team, submitting 386 translation suggestions for WooCommerce in Spanish (Costa Rica) and documenting his progress along the way. Anne McCarthy (@annezazu), the WordPress 7.1 release leadRelease LeadThe community member ultimately responsible for the Release., kept up her behind-the-scenes updates for students so they can shadow the release process firsthand.
WordPress Student Clubs
A Student Club at Ahmad’s Education in Dhaka, Bangladesh, used its weekly session to dig into how WordPress works as an open source project, discussing how the platform has grown through the contributions of millions of people and how club members can start contributing themselves. Organizer Atikur Rahman shared that the group is now preparing for an upcoming WordPress Campus Connect event at the same institution, with members working to bring in more classmates and build on the momentum from the discussion.
When I stepped into the role of Program ManagerProgram ManagerProgram Managers (formerly Super Deputies) are Program Supporters who can perform extra tasks on WordCamp.org like creating new sites and publishing WordCamps to the schedule. for WPCredits in Latin America, one of the goals I set for myself was to explore new ways of bringing students and educational institutions into the WordPress ecosystem.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen a growing interest in contributing, but we’ve also identified a common challenge: many institutions want to participate but simply don’t know where to begin. While WordPress already offers well-established contribution areas, integrating an educational community requires clear processes, supporting materials, guidance, and methodologies that make that first contribution experience approachable.
With that in mind, over the past few months we’ve been working on a series of pilot projects. The goal is not to create new contribution areas, but rather to develop replicable models that make it easier for educational institutions to sustainably engage with the contribution opportunities that already exist within WordPress.
Today, I’d like to share the first two pilots we’ve been working on.
Pilot 1: A Replicable Methodology for Introducing New Users to WordPress
The first pilot emerged from a very special opportunity.
During Patrones Hermosos, an international camp organized by Tecnológico de Monterrey and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which came to Costa Rica for the very first time and was hosted at Universidad Fidélitas, we had the opportunity to introduce WordPress as part of the camp’s learning experience.
Three students from the second WPCredits cohort at Universidad Fidélitas took on the challenge of designing and delivering a complete WordPress workshop for 40 high school students participating in the camp.
Across three sessions, they guided participants through creating their first WordPress website using GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc.
https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ while introducing key concepts such as website structure, the difference between pages and posts, content creation, digital privacy, accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility), and responsible publishing practices. By the end of the workshop, every participant had built and presented their own website, and the workshop achieved a 100% satisfaction rate.
My role in this pilot focused primarily on the educational side of the project. I worked alongside the team to design the learning experience, define the learning objectives, and develop the guides, templates, checklists, and supporting materials needed to both facilitate the workshop and document every stage of the process.
However, delivering a successful workshop was never the ultimate goal.
From the very beginning, we wanted the entire experience to become a reusable community resource. As a result, we developed a fully replicable guide that documents the methodology, roles, planning process, materials, recommendations, checklists, and evidence needed, so that any WPCredits student, university, or local WordPress community can organize a similar experience without having to start from scratch.
More than just a workshop, this pilot aims to demonstrate that an educational activity can also become a meaningful community contribution when it leaves behind open documentation and a methodology that others can adopt, improve, and reuse.
Pilot 2: A Replicable Model for Integrating Educational Institutions into WordPress Contribution Areas
The second pilot starts with a different question:
What does an educational institution need to successfully integrate into a WordPress contribution area and enable its students to contribute in an organized and sustainable way?
To answer that question, we selected Polyglots as the first contribution area where we’ll validate this methodology.
It’s important to clarify that this pilot is not simply about translating WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/. Translation is the environment where we’ll test a much broader process.
Our goal is to document the entire journey an educational institution follows – from deciding to participate in WPCredits to having students make meaningful contributions to the WordPress community. This includes preparing teachers and students, developing supporting materials, creating guides and templates, coordinating with the community, providing mentorship throughout the process, tracking progress, and documenting lessons learned.
This pilot will be carried out in collaboration with the Costa Rican Spanish Polyglots teamPolyglots TeamPolyglots Team is a group of multilingual translators who work on translating plugins, themes, documentation, and front-facing marketing copy. https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/ to contribute to the translation of WordPress.org into Costa Rican Spanish (es_CR).
The first institution selected for this pilot is Liceo Experimental Bilingüe José Figueres Ferrer, the first high school in America to join the WPCredits program.
Thirteen students are participating in WPCredits as part of their Community Service Program, creating a unique opportunity to connect academic learning with real contributions to the WordPress project. Because the school is bilingual, students will also be able to leverage their English and Spanish language skills while contributing directly to the Polyglots community and supporting the localization of WordPress for Costa Rica.
As with the first pilot, the objective extends far beyond completing a single contribution. We want to document every step of the process and build a methodology that other educational institutions can reuse when integrating WordPress contribution areas into their own academic programs.
If this model proves successful, it can later be adapted to other contribution areas, reducing the learning curve for new institutions and making it easier for more students to begin contributing to WordPress.
First meeting with students from José Figueres Ferrer Experimental Bilingual High School as we kick off our second pilot program. 🚀
What We Hope to Learn
Although these two pilots focus on very different experiences, they share the same purpose.
We want to better understand what helps educational institutions become active participants in the WordPress ecosystem and how those experiences can be transformed into open, well-documented, and easily replicable models.
Each pilot will help us identify what works, what can be improved, and what resources can help universities, schools, and communities avoid starting from scratch when introducing WordPress into their educational and contribution initiatives.
As both pilots continue to evolve, I’ll be sharing the results, lessons learned, and resources we develop, with the hope that they can serve as a starting point for many other educational institutions around the world.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, or similar experiences. I truly believe that one of WordPress’s greatest strengths is that our best ideas grow when they’re built collaboratively.
