Welcoming Kujirans to the third episode of Academy Insights.
‘Kid, I’ve been waiting for an update for ages. Where have you been, you utter jabroni?’
I know, I know, I’m sorry alright. I’ve been a busy man, and if you’ve been following Kujira Academy you’ll know this is true! Anyway, I promise to make it up to you.
What, right now? Ok fine, let’s get straight into it.
Today’s article reviews the progress made since Academy Insights: Episode 2, detailing the advancements in content creation and outlining the key developments from our Ambassador Program, before finally taking a look at the bigger picture and what’s left to do in order to actualize the core objectives set out in the Kujira Academy Litepaper.
So, sit back, relax and kick your feet up. It’s time for the update of all updates.
Contents
- Content Creation: An Overview
- Content Creation: What’s New?
- Kujira Academy Ambassadors: An Update
- Ambassador Program 2.0: The Story So Far
- Ambassador Program 2.0: Phase 2
- The Final Picture: Piecing It Together
- Conclusion
- Useful Links
Content Creation: An Overview
Content Creation is an essential ingredient in the Kujira Academy formula, providing a wide range of accurate, reliable information that informs, educates, and motivates users to find out more.
If you don’t already know, WinkHub is the information hub of Kujira, and they have been kind enough to dedicate a page on their website to Kujira Academy.
If you have yet to do so, go check out our page and find all the articles Kujira Academy has written so far.
Content Creation: What’s New?
Since we last spoke, content creation at Kujira Academy has skyrocketed, with a plethora of articles being released across a wide range of media. In addition to these articles, we now boast video tutorials ranging from Kujira dApp tutorials (PILOT) to leveraging the X algorithm, and have plans to expand this even further.
Additionally, updates to WinkHub’s functionality has allowed us to implement ‘Topic Categorization’, meaning similar articles have now been grouped together, allowing for easier navigation of our resources and materials.
That being said, we recognize that there still improvements to be made to become the educational hub of Kujira and in doing so, improve accessibility to resources and opportunities for all investors, no matter the skillset.
So, how do we plan on achieving this?
Zealy x Kujira Academy Integration
The integration of Zealy into Kujira Academy represents an important advancement in our quest to introduce gamification to learning, and the benefits have started to become apparent.
Students are now able to progress through skill-specific learning modules to improve their ranking and climb up the leaderboard, with the top performers receiving a proportionate share of the total prize pool.
It has also streamlined the onboarding process, marking a pivotal step in lowering the barriers to entry for new users and enabling them to find their rightful place within the Kujira ecosystem.
‘Well then, if it offers these capabilities, why haven’t I been able to access it?‘
Previously, we had restricted access exclusively to Kujira Academy students, both to safeguard our resources but also to reward those who had invested time and energy into our program.
However, it’s time for a change.
By extending this olive branch to Kujira community members, we hope to offer an interactive, competitive environment that unleashes the positive externalities of democratized education to all users within the ecosystem.
In fact, for the first month that the Kujira Academy Zealy is publicly available, we will be hosting a contest in which participants will compete for access to exclusive opportunities, with bonuses awarded to those who complete all the quests published on our website.
So, if I was to offer any advice, it would be to keep an eye out. It may be coming sooner than you think.
However, this is not the only way we are looking to improve accessibility to content, with another avenue we are exploring being the creation of an online lecture series.
Online Lecture Series
This series will include a range of workshops and seminars, ranging from skills-based tutorials (Utilizing AI In Content Creation) to knowledge-based presentations (An Introduction to DeFi), which will be published on a bi-weekly basis and made accessible to the general public.
In fact, we are deep in discussion with a certain *coach* about assisting us in building this out, and given his 20+ years of experience educating students, getting him on board would be pivotal, and a top priority.
‘So, what benefit would this bring to Kujira Academy, and the ecosystem as a whole?‘
I don’t want to jump the gun just yet, but this, in conjunction with the integration of Zealy, will greatly enhance Kujira Academy’s ability to provide a prescriptive guide to those wishing to get started in Web3, and offer investors of any type the opportunity to develop the skills/experience necessary to gain employment in this burgeoning industry.
If we get this right, it will transform the Web3 educational space as we know it, and place Kujira Academy at the forefront of this change.
Now, having caught you up on all the happenings within content creation, it’s time to take a look at what’s been going on with our Ambassadors, and the current Ambassador Program.
Kujira Academy Ambassadors: An Update
Following the completion of our first ever ambassador program, four of the top performing ambassadors from the first cohort were added to the Kujira Academy core team in an official capacity, and they’ve been nothing short of amazing!
Since then, these ambassadors have not only been influential in our grassroots outreach campaign, but they have also played an instrumental role in the development, organization and running of the second ambassador program, raising an important point.
Each of these ambassadors started with close to zero experience. Two months later, they are established figures within the Kujira ecosystem, earning a consistent paycheck and accessing exclusive opportunities.
In fact, Cobe, one of these ambassadors, is attending ETHDenver this week, with Kujira Academy sending him some cool merch to rock whilst he’s there!
I hope this goes to show that, here at Kujira Academy, we are working for you.
Community Events: Nigeria Meet-Up
As some of you may seen, we recently sponsored, organized and hosted our first official event in Nigeria, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was a resounding success.
With the help of John (one of our OG ambassadors) and in collaboration with PUMSA, we held a one-day workshop that educated participants about the capabilities of blockchain technology, the future of Decentralized Finance (DeFi), and how Kujira fits into all this, culminating in the onboarding of over 30 people onto the Kujira ecosystem.
You can view our tweet about it here, and watch a short video clip of what this event involved here.
On a professional level, this not only marked an important first step in implementing our grassroots outreach strategy, but also served as a template from which to develop, organize and host future events.
On a personal level, it has been incredible to see the progress we’ve made since our inception last September, and it made me immensely proud to give someone the opportunities that I never had when I entered the space. After all, this is what Kujira Academy was built for.
Before I move on, I wanted to give a quick shoutout to both John and Juan for their roles in making this event happen. You’re both legends!
Now, back to business.
Over the coming months, we will working hard to hold one of these events in every continent across the globe and push Kujira’s vision to as many eyes as possible. We have a number of events in the works, and have begun to plan out an Africa roadmap, as well as make inroads in to the US scene with the help of Amanda, a leading Web3 events manager based out of Chicago.
After all, this is one of Kujira Academy’s central goals, and it will play an instrumental role in onboarding new users onto the ecosystem as we continue to grow and expand. We have a solid plan in place, and I am thoroughly looking forward to executing it.
Now, time for an update on the current ambassador program and what lies ahead for these students.
Ambassador Program 2.0: The Story So Far
Student Onboarding: A New Cohort
After a successful outreach period, we welcomed our second cohort of students, inviting over 30 individuals to our dedicated Telegram channel before sending them the necessary materials required to begin their respective journeys with Kujira Academy.
We then held 1-on-1 calls with each individual to ascertain the value they could offer to Kujira Academy and the ecosystem at large, and it’s safe to say we were thoroughly impressed.
Many of these students, from all areas of the globe, were already prominent figures within the ecosystem, and their eagerness to get involved in any way they made clear the value proposition Kujira Academy offered to all types of investors, no matter the skillset.
With the foundations firmly set in place, it was finally time to start the program.
Week 1: Introductory Lecture
Thursday 8th November saw us kick off the Ambassador Program in style, hosting a brief introductory call that introduced Kujira Academy and its core aims before outlining the program structure over the next 6 weeks, with a specific focus on Assignment 1 and what it involved.
This assignment, developed by Kujira Academy, aimed to assess students’ ability to produce a high-quality written article under a time constraint.
Ultimately, this acted as a vetting process, enabling us to identify the individuals which could work to a deadline, engage with the resources/materials, and effectively respond to feedback, providing valuable insight into which students possessed the qualities we associated with a Kujira Student Ambassador.
So, what did Assignment 1 involve?
Week 1 Assignment: Research & Writing On Kujira
In this assignment, students were assigned an article and given two weeks to complete this, with the preliminary draft due by Thursday 15th February. These drafts were then reviewed by our editing team, who suggested improvements to the quality, structure, and relevancy of the article.
Following this, students were given until Friday 23rd February to produce a final draft, and invited to attend a workshop dedicated to improving their writing skills and enhancing their productivity.
Week 2: Utilizing AI In Content Creation Workshop
This workshop, held on Tuesday 20th February, aimed to educate students on how to leverage AI to improve their research, writing, and editing skills in time for the final deadline for ‘Assignment 1’ on Friday 23rd February.
However, before I get into the details, let me to explain why we decided to hold this workshop.
AI is an incredibly useful resource with multiple applications across a diverse range of areas. Knowing how to utilize this technology effectively offers a wide array of opportunity, both personally and professionally, so sharing this information with our students was incredibly important to me.
‘So, what did this workshop involve?’
We started this call off with a brief overview of the history of AI, assessing its potential benefits and risks, before finally discussing the growing influence this technology had on industries, blockchain technology, and everyday life.
We then discussed the potential it offered to content creation, explaining how it could be used to enhance the contents, structure, and overall quality of an article, as well as cut down the time required to produce an article to a significant degree.
Then, using an article already published on WinkHub, I provided a working example of how to find the appropriate resources, create an initial skeleton, and refine this to form a complete article. I also discussed how this tool could be used to maximize engagement for a given article, providing a prompt to optimize the SEO score, an essential determinant in the reach of a student’s work.
Finally, I supplied these students with a ‘Content Creation’ handbook, which provided a comprehensive overview of the main discussions outlined in the workshop. Feedback from our editing team suggests that this workshop, and the attached handbook, proved an incredibly useful resource for students, with the quality of the final articles generated improving significantly in time for the final deadline.
A Quick Note
At some point in the near future, we will incorporate this workshop into our online lecture series, and make the ‘Content Creation’ handbook publicly available to all community members.
At the end of this week, after reviewing students’ final drafts, as well as their engagement with the resources/materials and ability to meet the aforementioned deadlines, we made a decision as to who would be progressing, selecting nine students for the second phase of the ambassador program.
Now, what does this second phase of this program involve, and what can our prospective ambassadors expect over the coming weeks?
Ambassador Program 2.0: Phase 2
The core objective of the remainder of the program is to equip students with the skills and experience necessary to organize and host events within their local communities, and prepare them for life as a ambassador.
Over the next few weeks, students will engage in tasks relevant to event planning, management, and execution, with several key speaker events lined up to complement this. We have designed these tasks in a manner which will allow us to evaluate students’ communication, creativity, organization, and leadership, helping us to identify which students fit the mold of a Kujira Academy ambassador.
Ultimately, by empowering students to organize and host events, Kujira Academy will cultivate a community of capable ambassadors driving innovation in Web3 educational landscape, whilst also ensuring that this delivers direct benefits back to the Kujira ecosystem as a whole.
Now, for those interested in what these tasks are, take a look below for a more in-depth explanation.
Week 3: Mini Project
On Tuesday’s lecture, hosted by Cache, we outlined what the last three weeks involved and introduced the mini-project, the focus of Week 3. This mini-project tasked students with developing the concept for a community events proposal, encouraging them to merge strategic thought with creative insight and apply the learning from the last two weeks in an engaging and practical way.
Each student has now been assigned to a group and put in contact with one of our ambassadors, who is responsible for overseeing their proposal and providing direction and guidance when necessary. Thus, by the end of this week, we aim to have 4 proposals generated, which will lay the groundwork for the final project and set the stage for deeper exploration in the last two weeks of the program.
So, what is the final project, and how does the mini-project tie into all this?
Final Project
Building upon the groundwork laid in previous weeks, the final project will serve as a continuation of the mini-project in week 3 and a stepping stone to what comes next. Students will be reassigned to different groups and asked to fully develop the ideas generated during the mini-project into finished proposals, complete with a pitch deck, budget plan and implementation strategy.
They will have 3 weeks to do this.
Additionally, each one of our ambassadors, assigned to their respective groups, will be hosting a weekly review call to talk through these proposals, offering feedback and guidance to help students navigate.
Web3 Events Workshop
We have also organized a workshop in Week 4 with Amanda, a leading Web3 event manager. This workshop will offer practical guidance on event planning and execution, enriching students’ learning experience and equipping them with valuable skills to take forward should they be chosen as an ambassador.
The Ambassador Program will culminate in a presentation during Week 6, asking students to present their final proposals to the core team, and will be assessed via a competency matrix developed by Kujira Academy.
The scores assigned to each individual, as well as feedback from our ambassadors on students’ overall participation, will be used to inform our decision as to who will be selected as a Kujira Academy ambassador.
Ambassador Program: What’s Next?
After the final project, each student will be invited to attend their final 1-on-1 feedback call and complete the final feedback form, which will provide valuable feedback to the students themselves, but also to us on the program’s structure, effectiveness and overall utility.
Finally, we will invite all students back to attend a ‘Wrap-Up’ call, presenting them with an NFT ‘Certificate of Learning’, thanking them for their participation and informing them as to whether they will be moving forward with Kujira Academy.
So, this is what the next few weeks hold in store.
Now, I know this a lot of information, so allow me to tie this all together in a palpable way.
The Final Picture: Piecing It Together
A Review of The Big Picture
In this episode of Academy Insights, we’ve journeyed through the progress made since our last update, highlighting the key achievements and developments that have taken place in recent months.
In the realm of content creation, our arsenal has expanded, with a wealth of articles and video tutorials adding to our ever-growing collection of educational material.
Our ambassadors, both existing and prospective, have demonstrated remarkable growth and commitment to learning, and with a strategic outreach plan firmly in place, the wheels of future success have finally started to turn, and show no signs of slowing any time soon.
Whilst these advancements mark a pivotal step towards actualizing the core aims set out in the Litepaper, we also acknowledge that there remains much to be done for us to cement our position as the educational powerhouse of the Kujira ecosystem.
So, what remains to be done, and how will this be achieved?
Education
Looking ahead, Kujira Academy’s renewed focus will be improving accessibility to resources, and by continuing to build out key educational infrastructure, we hope to foster a culture of continuous learning and growth and empower investors from all backgrounds to find their place within the ever-changing world of Web3.
With comprehensive workshop series and online tutorials in the pipeline, and the integration of Zealy into Kujira Academy soon to be publicly released, we are well positioned to elevate the educational landscape within Kujira, and in doing so, ensure that knowledge disseminates to every corner of the ecosystem.
However, our ambitions extend well beyond the digital realm.
Community Event Development
With our current and future ambassadors at the helm, we’re gearing up to expand Kujira’s reach on a global scale. From meetups and workshops to hackathons and conferences, each event will be meticulously crafted to cater to diverse interests and expertise levels, ensuring inclusivity and accessibility for all participants.
This initiative won’t just put Kujira Academy on the map, it’ll make it the go-to destination for anyone serious about mastering Web3, and offer a path to educational opportunity and employment that simply can’t be ignored.
Conclusion
As we reflect on our journey thus far, one thing is clear. Kujira Academy is more than just an educational platform, it’s a catalyst for real-world change. With content creation flourishing, ambassadors thriving, and community events on the horizon, the future looks bright.
Together, we’re poised to usher in a new era of education and empowerment within the Kujira ecosystem, transform the Web3 educational landscape, and effect change that has never been seen before in this industry.
So, let’s continue to learn, grow, and build, because if we get this right, the sky is the limit.
Useful Links
Kujira Academy is a platform that aims to bridge the gap between young entrepreneurs and Web3, providing them with tangible education and career acceleration opportunities. Built by students, for students. Learn more about the academy and our vision here.
To register your interest and become a student of Kujira Academy, click here.
Written by KidKuji