Data and Policy Summer Scholar Program Alumni Advice: Applying Skills in the Workplace

We regularly host Roundtables with alumni of the Data and Policy Summer Scholar (DPSS) Program who share their UChicago experience and advice for prospective students. We asked alumni how they applied their skills in the workplace.

Below are pieces of their testimonies. Access our webinar recordings or visit our DPSS Alumni Stories webpage for additional highlights.

My job after DPSS required statistical knowledge from the data analytics coursework. The foundation in R also helped me pick up SQL [another work requirement] rather quickly. If you're trying to learn any other programming language, R is a great place to start.

Sumair Bhimani, DPSS 2020

My organization had an outdated system of data analysis and I had an intuition it wasn’t industry standard. DPSS introduced me to R studio, and I was surprised to have access to a system far more user-friendly, useful, and free. I implemented this on a current project, and everybody was just blown away. Knowing data management and R studio saved quite a bit of time through a regular process we've been doing for ten years and helped me position myself well at the organization.

Jhernie Evangelista, DPSS 2021

I had studied business in my bachelors then worked in the finance side of healthcare, but I was interested in furthering my policy knowledge. DPSS was a good way to gain hands-on experience with policy and data work. It enhanced my resume and gave me talking points for interviews. This helped me get a project lead position at a healthcare tech company in Berlin where I am working at the intersection of healthcare and technology where I encounter lots of policy related questions. The program helped build confidence and comfort working with unfamiliar policy topics.

Raymond Garskovas, DPSS 2021

I walked away from the program immediately applying the skills in my ongoing work in California. I analyze large data sets more effectively and efficiently using R. I analyze teacher credentialing disparities between juvenile court schools and traditional high schools, focusing on education equity for students who are impacted by the juvenile justice system. 

Betty Fang, MSCAPP Class of 2024, DPSS 2020

I’ve used R in several capacities since DPSS. One example was working on a Senator’s defense policy team. We focused on water infrastructure in the United States, which is decentralized, and there are different systems, gaps in the data, and blind spots. The Excel workbooks would crash my work laptop. With my R skills, I was able to find data sets, clean it, and create a map. The map allowed the team to visualize the weak points in the infrastructure.

Jose Macias, MPP Class of 2024, DPSS 2021