
"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
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