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Delta Fellow Profiles

Delta Analytics 2016 Fellow - Sharon Pithawalla

8/29/2016

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“United Way is a nonprofit organization which focuses on poverty alleviation. Our team helped the organization analyze the effectiveness of programs that aim at helping people get out and stay out of poverty. My role was consolidating / cleaning data and doing analyses using Tableau and Excel. I enjoyed my work because I knew that it would help make a direct positive impact on society. The big picture really motivated me. On a professional level, this was an avenue for me to get involved with data analytics, an area I've always wanted to pursue but never got a chance in my mainstream career. The best part, however, was that I made a ton of awesome friends and connections that will hopefully last way beyond the time I spent on the project.
To sum up my experience, Delta helped bring together the things that I am really passionate about - data analytics, nonprofits and entrepreneurship! I'm really excited to be involved because I can pursue my passion alongside my career. Delta really helped keep the dream alive!”


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Delta Analytics 2016 Fellow - Steven Troxler

8/14/2016

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“I Volunteer with Delta because I value giving back to the community, and doing it alongside people with similar interests. Through volunteering with Delta on its data science projects, I can have a bigger impact by leveraging my existing skills, and improve my professional skills for work. It’s also fun doing something related to your career with people you value as friends, all of which allows me to build up my professional network.

I have worked mostly in the for-profit sector, usually in settings where the success metrics are pretty clear right from the start. When working with Delta's clients, there is less clarity about what the end result should be. The questions are more subjective, which leads to a lot of questions: How should we define key variables and metrics? What graphs will best reflect the data? It was definitely a lot of fun meeting a group of people who I wouldn’t meet through work, and partnering with Delta's clients to make an impact.”
Steven Troxler, Data Scientist at Stitch Fix, Delta Analytics 2016 Fellow




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2016 Fellow Profile - Anna Elizabeth Shen

8/2/2016

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"We really felt the impact we made while working with Transforming Education. Through analyzing data, we managed to give insights that they didn’t initially have. And those insights could be acted upon to improve programs and affect the communities that they are already serving.
During my internship with the City of Berkeley over summer before my senior year, I wrote, distributed, and analyzed a city-wide survey to measure support for a potential sugar sweet beverage tax. The findings were that most people in Berkeley would have been in support of the policy, and the city council member and I approached the Berkeley City Council with these findings and put together a campaign for the ballot. In November of 2014, the ballot passed with 75% approval, and Berkeley became the first city in the nation to pass a tax on sugar sweetened beverages. It was very humbling to be a part of something that makes a difference in people’s lives. Without the data supporting our argument, we wouldn’t have been able to win against the deep pockets of major soda companies such as Coca Cola, which spent upwards of $4 billion that year against our campaign. It really showed me that data can move things, that it can empower people and point people in the right direction and push things that you might initially think are impossible to achieve. I thought that fiddling with numbers was perhaps just a hobby before, but after that I realized that the data I worked on could change people’s lives and save children from obesity. It was a turning point for me.”
Anna Elizabeth Shen, Senior Account Manager at 3Q Digital, Delta Analytics 2016 Fellow.

To apply for 2017 Fellowship, please visit http://www.deltanalytics.org/2017-fellowship.html


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Introducing... Nora Wu, our first summer fellow!

6/27/2016

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Delta is excited to welcome our first ever summer fellow! Meet Nora Wu, a student at Macalester College who has decided to join us for a few months. Nora is majoring in Economics and Applied Math, with a minor in Educational Studies and Global Health and spent the last semester at King's College London in the UK. 

How did you hear about Delta?

It’s kind of random. I somehow saw Sara’s email about Delta Analytics on an UWC alumni email a long while back and thought the mission was very cool. Out of curiosity, I emailed her and asked for more information. Our college offered  grant for summer internship. I applied, got in and then decided to come to work for Delta over summer.

What are you most excited about this summer?

I am excited to live and explore San Francisco and the Bay Area. The previous summer I had stayed in Beijing and New York City. I have never lived on the west coast before and am looking forward to it this summer.

What are you hoping to gain from the internship?
I am hoping to learn more about data science, how NGOs run and the problems they face. I am excited to learn more technical and analytic skills and make an impact for NGOs across the States. Since I haven’t taken any relevant course while I was in London, I am nervous and excited at the same time to do projects related to data and analysis.

Why were you initially interested in data and nonprofits?
I have always been doing volunteer work since high school. I have worked with various nonprofits in China, UK, US and Norway, and loved learning from other people and seeing myself grow from those experiences. I also worked in a philanthropy/nonprofit fundraising and consulting company last summer, which was an amazing experience. Academically,  I like studying mathematics, especially the part of logic, problem-solving and analysis. I took Econometrics during my sophomore year. Although it was very tough given most people in my class were juniors and seniors, I realized I really enjoy the analytic side of it and wanted to learn more. Later on, I took machine learning and data computing class and started to think about how I can apply those skills into real world problems, especially in issues related to social justice, education inequality and public health.

What do you think your biggest challenges will be this summer?

Hmmm... Transition has never been easy. I felt I have been moving around too much recently, and it sometimes makes me feel out of place. I guess the biggest challenge would be to settle down in SF. I mean, to make peace with where I am and what I am doing, to connect with people here, and also try to learn as much as I can and get the most out of such experience.  

What do you do in your spare time?
In my spare time, I like to read, go for runs, doing yoga, practice photography, sometimes singing and dance. I also enjoy spending quality time with friends and having lively conversations. I also want to be better at driving and explore more of the outdoor activities while I am in California.

Any long term career goals in mind yet?

This is uncertain... But I do hope after this summer I would get a better sense. :slightly_smiling_face:

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2016 Cohort Kickoff

2/6/2016

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Delta Strategy & Planning Retreat

7/25/2015

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Meet Takeo

12/5/2014

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Takeo Hiraki is an analyst at Charles River Associates. He is currently working on a project with Roots of Success, an environmental literacy and green job training curriculum-development non-profit.


1. Why did you choose to volunteer with Delta?
I've been interested in education and nonprofits ever since I served a term as VP of student government at my previous college. Throughout the strategic planning and budgeting process, I felt we had a wealth of information, but a dearth of meaningful insight into how this data should inform our decisions. I decided to join Delta Analytics because I think we provide a unique opportunity to help resource-strapped organizations make sense of the information that will be the key to their success.

2. What project are you currently working on with Delta?
I'm currently working with Jonathan and Asim on an education nonprofit called Roots of Success. We're using their performance and demographic information to visualize their data and assess the impact of their organization.

3. What is the coolest thing you have done with data?
I worked with a Berkeley professor to analyze data about how and when employees prefer to receive feedback from managers. It intuitively makes sense that most people want neither to be micromanaged, nor given too little direction; our research sought to find the sweet spot in between.

4. Favorite publicly available data set and why?
I'm a big fan of the OECD's data on business indicators, global aid, and education http://www.oecd.org/statistics/. There also used to be a site called Statfinder run by the UC Office of the President; unfortunately it got taken down.

5. What music are you currently listening to?
I have an eclectic taste in music: Hozier, Bastille, Calvin Harris, AWOLNATION, the Beatles.

6. What was the last vacation you took?
The last "vacation" I took was studying abroad in London. While in Europe, I traveled to Switzerland, Spain, and France on weekends, as well as attended EDC and other events in the UK. I met some interesting and amazing people while abroad.

7. Big plans for the next year?
My current plan is to study for the GMAT and take my first trip to Asia near the end of the year.

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Meet Ben

11/10/2014

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Ben Bedore works at Analysis Group, an economic consulting firm.

Why did you choose to volunteer with Delta?

I wanted to apply the data skills I've developed professionally toward helping organizations that give back to their communities

What project are you currently working on with Delta?
I'm working with Sara and Vijay on analyzing usage data of a Kenyan educational app (Eneza Education).

What is the coolest thing you have done with data?
I used health outcomes data to help validate the efficacy and impact of a new early childhood behavioral program in my home town.

Favorite publicly available data set and why (provide link to location):
The NOAA's climate and weather database. I've used it to settle bets, plus rainfall is everyone's favorite instrumental variable in 2SLS estimates. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datasets

What music are you currently listening to?
Koyaanisqatsi by Philip Glass

What was the last vacation you took?
I went back to Carleton in Northfield, MN, for a swim team reunion.

Big plans for the next year?
A trip to France, the GMAT, and (hopefully) more frequent exercise.

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  • About Us
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      • Fellowship FAQ
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