For summer job, Linh Anh Le ’20, a Business Economics and Education double major from Vietnam, worked at Chicago Public Schools (CPS), Department of STEM, as their data analytics intern. Through a Beloit College alumnus she met on Econ Day, she was introduced to another alum who worked in CPS. Fortunately, her skills and passion for doing education research matched with what CPS’s Department of STEM was looking for.

As an intern, she had the data set of approximately 40 STEM schools, including their test scores, rankings, and other performance criteria. Her job was to cohort the schools, by area, or by characteristics that could help the department see the overall picture of how their STEM schools were performing, what kind of assistance was needed, and where to provide support.

Thanks to the liberal arts education at Beloit, Linh Anh learned to work efficiently with different people, communicate, network, and ask proper questions. She also took away data analytical skills through Economics classes. Taking a Quantitative Method taught by Professor Jermaine Moulton in her junior year was definitely helpful. “When doing final project dealing with factors that influence blue collar workers’ wages, I encountered a lot of questions with that data set. Professor Moulton helped me by answering those questions in depth, and he inspired me to pursue data analytics.”