WordCamp Asia 2025, set to take place from February 20-22, 2025 in Manila has announced its scholarship recipients. The two scholarships, the Kim Parsell Scholarship and the Diversity Fund Scholarship will support the recipients financially by covering the travel and accommodation expenses along with event tickets.
Kim Parsell Scholarship Recipients
The Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship which was initially limited to WordCamp US attendees, was extended to include WordCamp Asia and Europe for the first time last year. The scholarship supports women who are active in the WordPress project, have never attended WordCamp Asia, and require financial assistance to take part in WordCamp Asia 2025.
The recipients of this scholarship for WordCamp Asia 2025 are Zeel Thakkar and Pooja Derashri.
Zeel Thakkar
Zeel Thakkar, a freelance WordPress developer hailing from Ahmedabad, India is one of the recipients. She was one of the organizers for WordCamp Ahmedabad 2023, WordCamp Ahmedabad 5.0, and Do_Action 2024. She was actively involved in the WordPress 6.7 release by being a part of the test team and is also a recent graduate of the 2024 Q4 WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program.
Pooja Derashri
Pooja Derashri, co-founder of WPVibes and an active member of the WordPress community, was also the recipient of the WCUS 2022 Kim Parsell Scholarship. Since she couldn’t attend the event that year, she has been selected this time to receive the scholarship for WordCamp Asia 2025.
She is currently a member of the Plugin Review Team, Program & Event supporter, one of the team reps of the Community Team, and a former Test Team & Training team representative.
She’s also part of the Hindi locale’s General Translation Editor (GTE) team and also the co-organizer of the Ajmer WordPress Meetup group. She was also a test team mentor for the Second Cohort (2024 Q1) of the WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program.
She was part of the WordPress 6.3 and 6.4 releases as a Test Lead and has played an active role as an organizer for WordCamp Asia 2023 and 2025 and co-organizer for WordPress Translation Day 2021. Additionally, she was a speaker at WordCamp Ahmedabad 5.0 and WordFest 2021.
Diversity Scholarship Recipients
The Diversity Scholarship has been a part of WordCamp Asia since 2023. This scholarship is aimed at attendees who have never attended any flagship WordCamps (Asia, US, or Europe). The scholarship is open to active WordPress contributors who have never attended any flagship WordCamps (Asia, US, or Europe) and require financial support. It focuses on individuals from underrepresented demography who will use their experience to support their local WordPress communities in Asia.
The recipients of this scholarship are Makarand G. Mane and Astha Jain.
Makarand G. Mane
Makarand G. Mane, the Founder and Designated Partner at WPGenius Solutions, is an active community member. He also serves as the General Translation Editor for Marathi and as a Photo Directory Moderator.
He has been involved in numerous WordCamps as a speaker, volunteer, and facilitator. His most recent contributions include speaking WordCamp Bengaluru 2024 and WordCamp Nagpur 2024, and serving as an organizer for WordCamp Kolhapur 2025. He is also the organizer of the Kolhapur WordPress Meetup group.
Astha Jain
Astha Jain was one of the recipients of the WordCamp Asia 2024 Diversity Scholarship but was not able to take part in the event. As a result, the team has now extended the scholarship for her to attend WordCamp Asia 2025.
She was part of the organizing team for WordCamp Bhopal 2023 and do_action Bhopal 2024, and a speaker at WordCamp Mumbai 2023 and WordCamp Delhi 2024. She was also a recipient of the Yoast Care fund.
The schedule and speakers list for WordCamp Asia 2025 is now available.