This post proposes a combined Education Sponsorship Fund for WP Credits and WordPress Campus Connect (WPCC) students, added as a standard package to the Call for Sponsors for every flagship WordCamp WordCamps 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. (WordCamp Asia, WordCamp Europe, WordCamp US).

Two prior efforts already did a version of this, independently of each other and without a shared fund or process:

• WordCamp US 2025: two WPCC students attended the event, including inaugural scholarship recipient Andrés Parra, sponsored by WordPress.com An 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/ (The Repository). This was the first time WPCC students reached a flagship WordCamp.
• WordCamp Europe 2026: five WP Credits students were fully sponsored (travel, hotel, tickets, and Contributor Day Contributor 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/) by Automattic, Elementor, Hostinger, and WPBakery, through the WordPress.org Education Student Sponsorship. Sponsors were listed on the WCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. sponsor page and a venue banner. In a follow-up impact report, sponsored students rated the experience 8 to 10 out of 10.

Both were organized ad hoc, per event, without a published recommendation form, selection criteria, or funding structure. This proposal formalizes that work into one repeatable fund covering both programs.

It follows a discussion in the WP Credits team huddle on August 26, 2026, where combining the two programs’ scholarship efforts into a single fund was raised as a beneficial next step.

This is about people first. For a WPCC or WP Credits student, a flagship WordCamp isn’t just a conference, as we know, it’s often the first time their contribution work (a Make team commitment, a workshop, a mentorship) gets to stand next to the people who built the software they’ve been learning on. That’s the kind of moment that turns a student into a lifelong contributor.

It’s also about our team’s goals. Community Education keeps coming back to one word: sustainable. We don’t want programs that depend on someone remembering to ask a sponsor at the last minute. We want a system that runs the same way every time, so organizers and mentors Event 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. can nominate a student with confidence instead of hoping something comes together.

And it connects to the business case flagship organizing teams already care about: sponsors get real, visible recognition (buzz report mentions, logo placement, a presence at Contributor Day) for a contribution that’s easy to say yes to and easy to explain internally.

From my experience watching the WCEU cohort’s impact report, the sponsors weren’t hard to convince: they just needed someone to hand them a clear, ready package. That’s what this fund is. 🙂

I want to pose something to us: rather than rolling this out across every flagship at once, let’s pilot it at WordCamp Asia 2027 first, learn from it, and then bring a refined version to WordCamp Europe and WordCamp US.

Here’s the shape of the trial:

• One combined fund (not two separate asks): WPCC and WP Credits sponsorship efforts merge into a single Education Sponsorship Fund, so sponsors and organizers deal with one process, not two.
• A baseline cohort for WCA 2027: 3 WPCC students and 5 WP Credits students (8 total), covering flight, hotel, and event ticket. This mirrors the WCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event. and WCEU cohorts we already know worked.
• Built into the standard Call for Sponsors for WordCamp Asia, not a separate fundraising campaign organizers have to run on the side.
• A published recommendation form, filled out by WPCC organizers, WP Credits mentors, or faculty. Not an open student application. It asks for a contribution summary, a portfolio link, why this student stands out, what the opportunity would mean for them, whether they’re under 18 or need a chaperone, and an optional, sensitively handled note on financial need.
• Selection on two criteria: sustained contribution track record (not a single event), and the quality of the student’s WordPress.org The 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 or personal site. A small review committee of education program managers plus a rotating mentor Event 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. or organizer seat, weighs these alongside diversity of region, program, and contribution track across the cohort.
• A funding target of $30,000: $24,000 for the 8-student baseline, plus a $6,000 reserve for education materials and on-site activities at WCA. Minimum sponsor contribution is $3,000 (one full scholarship), with no maximum and no leftover funds — anything raised above target goes straight into that event’s education activities.
• Equal recognition regardless of contribution size: a monthly Education Buzz Report shout-out, logo placement on the event’s education page and printed materials, presence at the Contributor Day and Community tables, and a mention in each recipient’s required recap blog post.

Because this is a trial, I want us to treat WCA 2027 as our learning cohort. If it works the way I think it will, we take what we learn and build the next version for WCEU and WCUS. If parts of it don’t work, we’ve only had to fix one event’s process, not three.

• Build the recommendation form, including the age and chaperone flag, in time for the WCA 2027 Call for Sponsors.
• Draft the combined guidelines page, merging the existing Campus Connect Flagship WordCamp Scholarship Guidelines with the scholarship option already in the WP Credits sponsor guide, and add it as a standard line item to the WCA 2027 Call for Sponsors template.
• Staff the review committee for this cycle, I’d love to collaborate with WPCC organizers and WP Credits mentors on who takes the rotating seat, rather than deciding that alone.
• Brief the WordCamp Asia 2027 organizing team early, so the fund is part of their sponsor planning from day one instead of something added on later.

A few things I still need to confirm before we lock this in, and I’d genuinely welcome eyes on:

• A lightweight rubric for judging “portfolio excellence” consistently across reviewers.
• How sponsorship funds get received and disbursed for a combined fund, and how we track the education-activities reserve. cc @harmonyromo
• What consent, insurance, or Foundation policy applies when a selected student is a minor or needs a chaperone.

I don’t want to build this in a vacuum, so feedback from WPCC organizers and WP Credits mentors is welcome before this moves forward. If this trial goes well at WordCamp Asia 2027, I think we’ll have something worth taking to every flagship WordCamp after it. 🙂

cc/ @julians3 @wpwebhost @onealtr @nukaga for WCA leadership feedback

Thank you to @francescodicandia @celigaroe @webtechpooja @noruzzaman for helping review the proposal ahead of this post.