Yoast Care fund: An interview with Luisa Ravelli

We have another recipient of the Yoast Care fund and it’s Luisa Ravelli, who was nominated by Lidia Pellizzaro! Luisa does quite some impressive work for the Polyglots team, but also helps organize and speaks at Italian WordCamps and meetups. And although WordCamp Verona has been postponed to next year, Luisa is part of the organizing team. Talk about being involved! Let’s get to know Luisa a bit better.

How did you learn about WordPress?
It was 2008 and I was searching for something to start my own blog, just for fun. WordPress just came to me searching the web and it seemed easy enough to start, so I went for it. Almost everything has changed since then and now WordPress is so much more than a blog platform. I’ve seen and tried all these changes and now I’m more involved than ever.

Why did you start contributing?
After starting to attend WordPress Meetups in my town I discovered WordCamps! My first WordCamp was WordCamp Milan 2017, but I was there only for the conference day. A few months later I attended WordCamp Turin and I decided to discover what you can do at a contributor day. I’ve always worked with open source software so the idea of contributing to give back was something I already knew, but it was a real surprise to find such a friendly atmosphere! Everyone was so enthusiastic and I decided to be part of the Polyglots Team, it was love at first sight.

Who is your WordPress mentor?
In fact, I think I can say all of the Italian community has been and continues to be my mentor. I’ve learned so much in these years as a professional but also, and especially, as a person. Being involved in this community is discovering something new every day and you can always count on someone’s help or advice when you need it.

What contribution or moment are you most proud of?
For sure the moment I was nominated GTE by the Italian Polyglots Team. We were at the WordCamp Verona contributor day last year and I didn’t expect that at all, it was an exciting moment. I love that with our contribution we made the WordPress environment accessible, even to those who are not familiar with the English language. It’s continuous work but fortunately, the Italian team is very active and well organized.

Where can people find you? Online, WordCamps, other meetups?
You can always find me on Slack (@Luisa Ravelli), both the Italian and the international one. Or in-person attending WordCamps in northern Italy and meetups in Brescia or Verona. I’d also love to attend international events, so I hope the first chance is near!

Thanks again for your great effort in WordPress and for taking care of a lot of great “hidden” contributors this way.

Thank you, Luisa! We love helping out people who contribute to WordPress. If you’re reading this and have someone in mind who deserves some recognition for their contributions to the community: nominate them! You can do so by going to our Care fund page. What are you waiting for?