Over summer 2019, the CCCE hosted a variety on- and off-site fellowships, ranging all the way from the Carleton College campus to Gaziantep, Turkey.
Jaylin Lowe ’21, a statistics major, worked as a Data Fellow over the summer with the Northfield Public Schools.
“I was working on analyzing a couple different sets of data for the school district, using R and Tableau,” she said.
A lot of what the school system was interested in, Lowe said, was the correlation between PreACT and ACT scores among students. She also worked on analyzing and understanding performance gaps between male and female kindergarteners and first-graders.
“They are hopefully using some of my results to help counsel students on their post–high school options,” she said. Lowe also spent a significant amount of time analyzing results from a Social, Academic, Emotional Behavior Risk Screener (SAEBRS) survey. “It’s a survey that teachers in the elementary schools fill out about their students and their behavior, and it marks students ‘at-risk’ academically, socially, emotionally, and/or overall.”
The usefulness of her research, to Lowe, was one of the most rewarding things about her fellowship, as was its connection between education and statistics.
“I loved getting to work with real-world data,” she said. “I always knew that statistics was very applicable, but there was this moment that I realized the work I was doing might actually impact students in Northfield. That’s both a very scary and exciting thing, but I enjoyed being a part of it. I’ve also always been interested in education, so I loved being able to connect the two.”
Her fellowship also provided her first-hand experience in the field of education, something about which she described herself as very passionate.
“I was able to sit in on many meetings, and I learned a lot about how the education system works,” she added. “I came out of the internship with a newfound understanding of how important data analysis can be, and I had a perfect example of how it can be used for good.”
Above all else, for Lowe, her summer fellowship position, by giving her this first-hand, useful experience, helped reinforce her future career plans.
“I am more confident I want to do something in data analytics than I was before,” she said. “I’m still working on figuring out exactly what that is, but it’s nice to have at least one idea of what it could look like in practice.”
Nicole Collins ’22, a prospective Sociology/Anthropology major, worked as a Communications Specialist in the summer of 2019.
“It involved essentially working with the CCCE and other community partners (e.g. Ruth’s House of Hope, HealthFinders) to help with communications work, like filming and editing videos, helping write reports, making social media posts, and more,” she said.
The introduction to an office-based space, Collins said, was both informative and enjoyable.
“Working in that environment, I was really able, for the first time, to see my actions and projects have a tangible impact,” she said. “It also allowed me to get real-time, quick feedback on pieces and projects in a way that I hadn’t experienced before working freelance.
“Communication, it seems, can be largely freelance and, in that respect, obviously trains you for a very independent and almost recluse lifestyle and work ethic,” she said. “It was pretty jarring going from an all-freelance-all-the-time to a workplace communications environment, where I had to report to a boss, discuss programs, edit documents with people around me, etc. I know that’s incredibly vague but it’s also incredibly difficult to condense an entire summer into a few key lessons. I think, though, on the whole, my work ethic and communications skills increased greatly through exposure and submersion in the CCCE’s welcoming, supportive, friendly environment.”
Collins also added that her experience as a summer fellow helped her hone in on future career and internship plans.
“Above anything else it really convinced me that I want to work in either communications or nonprofits (or perhaps both) once I graduate,” she said. “The communal, friendly environment of the CCCE was immediately and unforgettably welcoming. And discussing the minutiae of communications—i.e., what goes where and why and how—is something I’ll never get tired of doing.
“I am interning at a record label doing very similar stuff this coming summer and, based on last year’s summer fellowship experience, I’m really looking forward to it.”
Naomi Lopez ’22 worked a fellowship with the Children of Incarcerated Caregivers (CIC) nonprofit based in Minneapolis. In her position, Lopez worked on connecting CIC and families undergoing parental incarceration.
“This specific demographic is difficult to locate for various reasons,” she said, “and I have had to develop some creative approaches to find these individuals and advertise CIC’s resources.”
Being able to travel around the Twin Cities in order to put up posters and speak to people, Lopez said, was one of her favorite parts of the fellowship.
“I’ve seen so much of Minneapolis and navigate public transportation like a pro,” she added.
Her fellowship also had an impact on her future career plans.
“I am definitely more interested in criminology and am debating whether or not I should change my major,” she said. “For my career, I am more certain that law school is the right path for me!”
CCCE Summer Fellowship opportunities can be found on the Tunnel website.