User:Academic Challenger

My name is Skylar. I have been totally blind since birth, and began editing Wikipedia at the age of 16 in 2003. My user name comes from the name of a high school TV game show I was on. I have been an administrator since 2004, and was very active until starting graduate school in 2009. Throughout that time, I created about 1000 articles, on subjects including American and world politics and political history, religion, literature, music, and blindness organizations/companies. I also improved the content of many other articles on those subjects. As an administrator, I was at one time among the most active New Page patrollers, speedily deleting thousands of pages which were indisputably inappropriate. I additionally reverted vandalism, and disciplined problematic users while mentoring new good contributors.

I have sporadically edited since 2009, and renewed my commitment to the free knowledge movement in 2019 when WikiBlind was founded. I and another blind administrator now seek to recruit new blind editors to Wikipedia and also improve the content of articles around blindness.

I have always exclusively used the Job Access With Speech software for editing.

I earned my BA from Saint Mary's College of California in 2009 and my Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2017. I taught college political science courses for nearly 10 years. Currently I work in the field of access technology, for the Braille Institute.

I live with my wife Theresa and son Peter in Santa Barbara, California. I enjoy playing and listening to music, having played piano since an early age, clarinet throughout middle and high school, and later singing in my Catholic church choir.

This user is a proud member of WikiBlind

This user is an administrator on the English Wikipedia. (verify)

This user has been on Wikipedia for 21 years, 2 months and 24 days.

en

This user is a native speaker of the English language.

This user is a participant in WikiProject History.

My Awards

For your many contributions on political figures world-wide, I award you this barnstar. Isomorphic

For fighting vandals above and beyond the call of duty, I hereby award you this Barnstar.--FWDixon 13:19, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

I, V. Molotov, hereby give you this Working Man's Barnstar for taking out the garbage in Wikipedia.

Take care, Molotov (talk) 18:58, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
For fighting vandals above and beyond the call of duty, I hereby award you this Barnstar.-- Vufors 07:38, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

For fighting vandals above and beyond the call of duty, I hereby award you this Barnstar.-- Arhain 08:37, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

For fighting vandals above and beyond the call of duty, I hereby award you this Barnstar.-- Doobi18 07:38, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

For fighting vandals above and beyond the call of duty, I hereby award you this Barnstar.-- Howdyhody 10:27, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

I, Kukini, hereby award **Academic Challenger** the **WikiDefender Barnstar** for incredibly efficient and consistent wikidefense. Kukini 23:16, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

For being self-important and conceited, I award you this barnstar.--68.4.58.77 00:22, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

		The RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
		I award you this barnstar for all the reasons everyone else did Earth KING 23:15, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

		The Editor's Barnstar
		For removing 9000+ unencyclopedically unworthy pages from Wikipedia and helping to keep the encyclopedia in a healthy state - As a new admin, I can certainly attest to the unappetizing nature of this hard work (clearing CSD). Regards, Blnguyen

		The RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
		I award you this barnstar for your tireless ongoing efforts in countering vandalism on Wikipedia - every time I seem to go to revert something, you always seem to beat me! Keep up the great work in keeping Wikipedia in pristine condition. Daniel.Bryant (aka Killfest2) 05:18, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

		The RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
		For leaving your personal thoughts and opinions at the door and working against vandalism of the Prussian Blue (duo) article by a vandal with whom others may have sympathized. Regards, Nick—^Contact/_Contribs 03:28, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

		The Surreal Barnstar
		For helping me with editing when I was first introduced to Wikipedia. Thank you. Sharkface217 00:46, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

For your contributions to Wikipedia and humanity in general, you are hereby granted the coveted Random Smiley Award
by Pedia-I ^{Project Jesus}
(Explanation and Disclaimer)

		The RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
		I Kevin Kahle 03:38, 4 February 2007 (UTC)Kevin Kahle give you this banstar for helping stop vandalism on Wikipedia!

**〈RED VEЯS〉** awards this Barnstar to **Academic Challenger** for ace vandal fighting.

Thanks for the rv on my user page, mate! 〈RED VEЯS〉 21:32, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

		The RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
		For continuing your sterling efforts fighting vandals, I hereby award you this barnstar. Colds7ream 09:21, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

		The RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
		Everywhere I go, especially WP:AIV, Academic Challenger is always there, helping out and blocking vandals. He does an amazing job, and I don't know what AIV would do without him! Thanks for reverting vandalism and making Wikipedia even better then it already is! Chickyfuzz14^{(user talk)} 05:28, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

		The Special Barnstar
		Jackrm is awarding Academic Challenger a Special Barnstar for being a great admin at times when there is a low ammount of active admins due to the time, and for deleting those darn nonsense pages! → jacĸrм ( talk \| sign ) 07:56, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

		The Original Barnstar
		Good job.The4532 (talk) 17:04, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for participating in my RfA! It was closed as successful with 58 supporting, 0 opposing, and 2 neutral. I hope to demonstrate that your trust in me is rightly placed and am always open to critiques and suggestions. Cheers. MBisanz ^talk 04:33, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

		The Mighty Defender of the Wiki Barnstar
		In recognition & thanks for your heroic efforts in fighting vandals, improving all Wikipedia articles and adding to our sum of knowledge! Dreadstar † 16:14, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

		The Working Man's Barnstar
		I am awarding this because you are an administrator. Thank you for all that you do. LAA Fan^sign _review 23:26, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

		El Sombrero Barnstar Award
		You deserve this award for contributing to content of interest to the Latinos WikiProject. Outstanding contributions are generally about articles pertaining to Latinos and/or Hispanics in the United States as well as articles about Latin America. LatinoMuslim 02:13, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

		The Special Barnstar
		You're a really good general contributer to Wikipedia! Keep up the good work! Advanceforward (talk) 12:44, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

		The Administrator's Barnstar
		For dealing with my reports to AIV so efficiently. Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 22:15, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

The Original Barnstar

I dont understand why you are saying that my wikipedia post is an advert. Its not an advert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_architectural_plan_local_authority_approval

A4architect (talk) 09:31, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

	The Defender of the Wiki Barnstar
	learn to tolerate the need for the world to get information in a fair manner. Refrain from selective wikipedia publishing of info. A4architect (talk) 09:40, 18 February 2012 (UTC)