Soila Kenya

Experience

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  East Africa Model United Nations

  Mar 2013 - Mar 2013

  Reporter

  Worked as a reporter for a week at the 2013 conference, writing articles.

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  Inspire Afrika

  Mar 2015 - Feb 2018

  Editorial Assistant and Writer

  I wrote articles for both their online blog and quarterly magazine. I also edited translated articles.

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  Giovani nel Mondo

  Mar 2016 - Mar 2016

  Rome Press Game Reporter

  Working as a reporter for the 7th annual Rome Model United Nations conference, specifically in a simulation of a real editorial team, Rome Press Game.

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  Involvement Newspaper

  Jun 2016 - May 2018

  While contributing as a writer, I edited articles on rotation of both the blog and monthly campus newspaper. While contributing as a writer, I edited articles in the Features section of both the blog and monthly campus newspaper.

  • Editor At Large

    Jun 2017 - May 2018

  • Features Editor

    Jun 2016 - May 2017
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  She Leads Africa

  Jul 2016 - Feb 2017

  I contributed articles about how to be successful as a young African woman. I was a news editorial intern and wrote news articles for the She Leads Africa online blog.

  • Content Contributor

    Jan 2017 - Feb 2017

  • News Editorial Intern

    Jul 2016 - Dec 2016
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  Sub Saharan International Model United Nations

  Sept 2016 - Aug 2018

  Founding Under-Secretary-General Communications and Head of Press 2016/17 and 2017/18

  - Managing the official conference email domain, website and social media pages - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn- Managing delegates database and newsletters- Responsible for both internal and external communications through their team- Managing, updating and maintaining the conference management operating system.- As internal liaison, managing the team's social media/ Secretariat Whatsapp groups, ensuring effective communication between team members via email, social media, or any other channel and maintaining a positive team spirit before, during and after the conference.- Effectively overseeing the planning of all aspects of the Conference assigned to me.- Updating and maintaining the affairs of their department.- Ensuring the best possible representation of SAIMUN, the secretariat, and anything SAIMUN-affiliated throughout and permanently after holding this post.- Running applications for and selecting a press team for the conference.- Ensuring robust coverage of the conference especially but not only the work of the committee by members of the press during the conference. This includes running the following media – SAIMUN YouTube Channel, The DAILY SAIMUNER Newspaper, The SAIMUN Podcast along with having photographers and graphic designers.- Regularly, effectively and professionally communicating any and all updates on the work of my team to the Secretary-General, before and during the conference and proactively responding to feedback/ guidance on how to improve the work of their department.- Assisting in overseeing and responding to staff/ delegate on-site feedback and ensuring delegates receive the most enriching, rewarding, exciting educational experience possible.- Delivering a post-conference report on the work of the department and future recommendations to the Secretary-General. Show less

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  MUIMUN

  Apr 2017 - Apr 2017

  Reporter

  Worked as a reporter for the Muenster University International Model United Nations (MUIMUN) conference as part of their reporting staff for the publication ‘The Westphalian Diplomat’

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  Media Council of Kenya

  Jul 2017 - now

  Freelance Journalist

  Accredited journalist in Kenya covering stories involving science, gender, travel, mental health, tech, the internet, pop-culture and career development.

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  Code For Africa (CfA)

  Jul 2017 - Dec 2019

  - Project co-ordinator of openAFRICA, Africa’s largest volunteer open data portal.- Working with CfA’s interactive data design team on transnational data journalism projects, by supporting data research and analysis, visualization and content production.- Supporting CfA’s Academy activities, through partner communities such as Hacks/Hackers and WanaData, as well as directly with partner newsrooms and journalism schools.- Providing digital communications and project implementation support on CfA programmes, initiatives and activities.- Helping coordinate of CfA’s digital marketing / branding assets and activities.- Supporting development of CfA Academy courseware and communications assets. - Content production under the fact-checking initiative PesaCheck. Show less

  • Data Journalist, Fact-checker and Trainer

    May 2018 - Dec 2019

  • Communications and Program Intern

    Jul 2017 - Apr 2018
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  Daystar University

  Oct 2017 - Mar 2019

  Founder DataStream

  I founded a data journalism initiative in the Daystar University student publication, Daystar Oracle where we broke down the numbers for our audience and presented them through infographics.

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  International Journalism Festival

  Apr 2018 - Apr 2018

  Conference Speaker

  I was part of a panel on robot journalism in the Global South. I spoke about using air quality sensors to detect levels of air pollution as well as satellite imagery and forensic analysis of social media photos/videos to debunk military propaganda about combat in difficult to reach places, such as Somalia and Kenya.

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  Open Knowledge Foundation

  May 2019 - May 2019

  Conference Speaker

  My talk at the csv,conf,v4 event covered the tips & tricks of community-sourcing for openAFRICA.net - the largest independent repository of open data on the African continent - used in order to digitise deadwood to give citizens actionable information. Data availability in many African countries is dismal. Files upon files of important government information lay gathering dust in abandoned storage rooms. On the other hand, journalists and citizens need this information to keep governments in check and ensure they are receiving the right services. So how do you turn paper-based government archives into machine-readable & API accessible digital files? Show less

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  Full Fact

  Nov 2019 - Nov 2019

  Research Fellow

  Researching the impact of fact-checking at Full Fact through a grant from the International Fact-Checking Network.

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  Salzburg Global Seminar

  Jan 2020 - Apr 2020

  Communications Assistant

  - Writing both short, quick-turn-around and long, in-depth interviews and features for SalzburgGlobal.org and Clemens magazine, daily program newsletters, program reports, and external media partners’ publications;- Researching Salzburg Global Fellows after they have participated in a Salzburg Global program and tracking their work;- Conducting in-person (during programs) and Skype (post-program) interviews with Fellows and donors;- Working with local freelancers to produce video content for Salzburg Global’s YouTube and channel and website;- Producing content for Salzburg Global’s social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube);- Pitching feature articles to external media partners;- Drafting press releases;- Crisis Communications (COVID-19)- Maintaining the publications library and assisting with worldwide mailing distribution; and- Assisting the Fellowship office with network engagement and administration. Show less

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  Open Knowledge Foundation

  May 2020 - May 2020

  Conference Speaker

  My talk at the csv,conf,v5 covered the topic of data archival from a journalist's perspective. Have you ever read an awesome interactive article online from your favourite news source and clicked on a link that landed you on an error 404 page? Or a now-deleted tweet? In all the rage of data journalism, one thing that needs to be put at the forefront is the necessity of archiving data used within these news stories for posterity. Decades from now, we should still have full access to these stories in the way they were originally meant to be consumed. This talk will cover a few tips data journalists can start using NOW to ensure the links they use to give more context to their stories will live on. Show less

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  Africa Women Journalism Project

  Jul 2020 - now

  - Analyze and compare data from a variety of data source format (e.g PowerPoint, PDF, Word, Text, Access, SharePoint, Oracle, MySQL, etc.)- Oversee the work of the Research team - Coordinate the data and design teams in developing assets for journalism fellows.- Manage the work and responsibilities of the junior data analyst.- Find journalistic insight for data-driven storytelling on health, gender and development topics- Create Visual dashboard for publishing content for consumption across digital,print and broadcast media- Create narrative reports of the key findings Show less - Interpret data, analyze results using statistical techniques and provide ongoing reports- Develop and implement databases, data collection systems, data analytics and other strategies that optimize statistical efficiency and quality- Acquire data from primary or secondary data sources and maintain databases/data systems- Identify, analyze, and interpret trends or patterns in complex data sets- Assess data quality from the journalists’ draft articles before publication- Identify, gather and compile data resources and information for stories, brainstorm sessions and media assets.- Identify, gather, compile and analyse data resources from reports and other credible data sources for possible stories- Source data as requested to feed into the journalists’ stories- Assess data quality from the journalists’ draft articles before publication- Maintain an organized archive of resources for future stories as well as data collected for previous stories. - Scrape, analyse and report insights from datasets, reports and research papers as required.- Critically review literature accompanying data sourced to check for relevance- Locate and define new process improvement opportunities Show less

  • Data Team Lead

    Jul 2023 - now

  • Data Journalist

    Dec 2022 - Jun 2023

  • Journalism Fellow

    Jul 2020 - Nov 2022
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  PTS Africa | The Emotional Intelligence Company

  Nov 2020 - Nov 2020

  Panel Member

  Digitalisation and globalisation have sparked radical shifts in how we work and COVID-19 has accelerated these beyond anything we could have imagined, leaving many feeling uncertain about what the future holds for them at work.What skills do we need as we look ahead into the unknown?- The most important organisational capabilities for the future are the skills that make humans different from machines. At the core of these skills is Emotional Intelligence:- The World Economic Forum has ranked EQ as one of the top 10 skills needed for the fourth industrial revolution- The McKinsey Group has identified that between now and 2030, the need for social and emotional skills will grow at a much faster pace than the need for cognitive skills.- The Institute for Health and Human Potential’s research indicates that Emotional Intelligence skills now account for 85 to 90 percent of what is required for exceptional performance and leadershipParticipants who tuned in learned:• What is the future of work, and why does it matter?• What skills are necessary to thrive in the Forth Industrial Revolution?• How can EQ help us to become more future-fit? Show less

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  Baraza Media Lab

  Sept 2021 - Sept 2021

  Guest Speaker

  I spoke to the inaugural class (2021) as well as the class of 2023 of the Baraza-Fringe Data Storytelling Fellowship virtually about what to watch out for as they begin their data journalism journey.

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  Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications

  Feb 2023 - now

  Journalism Trainer

  Occasionally preparing and delivering data journalism trainings for various groups. of data journalists across East Africa