On Saturday, October 22nd, the halls of the Harvard Science Center were buzzing with middle and high school students at Harvard’s inaugural Florence Nightingale Day (FND). Introduced by the American Statistical Association and the Caucus for Women in Statistics (CWS) in 2018, FND is part of an international effort to celebrate women in statistics, biostatistics, and data science and to cultivate student engagement in these fields. The day was named after Florence Nightingale, who is known as the founder of modern nursing but was also a pioneer in statistics; through her use of statistical methods and data analysis tools (e.g. pie charts!), Nightingale successfully advocated for crucial reforms in medicine. While the Harvard FND event encouraged young women to attend, we also welcomed students of all genders and, more generally, strove to recruit students from marginalized communities, including students of color, who have been underrepresented in STEM fields.
Hands-On Data Science and Statistics Activities
During the FND event, we hosted approximately 50 students (from a diverse range of schools in the greater Boston area), parents/guardians, and teachers, as well as 30 volunteers. In the morning, students grabbed their “swag” bags and worked furiously on their statistics scavenger hunt, vying for first place (some pretty nifty data science journal prizes were distributed at the end of the day). Then, parents/guardians and teachers learned about potential statistics and data science careers through the lens of different senior thesis topics in a session led by Dr. Alex Young (Lecturer in Statistics) and Dr. Kevin Rader (Senior Preceptor in Statistics). In the afternoon, while parents/guardians and teachers wrangled data to draw real-world conclusions about college mobility in a workshop led by Julie Vu (Preceptor in Statistics), student participants launched into activities that included data visualization and the Monty Hall problem led by Dr. Kelly McConville (Senior Lecturer in Statistics) and undergraduate student Ginnie Ma. These activities exposed participants to concepts in probability, statistical research, and data science in a hands-on, real-life manner.
Engaging College and Career Panels
The event featured engaging, informative professional development programming, including college and career panels. In the college panel, Harvard statistics concentrator Michelle Qin, mathematics concentrator Ginnie Ma, and Harvard PhD student panelists Amy Zhou (biostatistics) and Biyonka Liang (statistics) shared their insight and tips on getting involved in research, preparing for college applications, and preparing academically for a STEM major in college. Reflecting on her experience on the panel, Michelle Qin said, “It was energizing to hear students' questions about statistics classes in college. I think all of us panelists remember being in these students' shoes, wondering things like How can I make my high school experience meaningful? and What is research, and should I be worried about it now?” Later in the day, our career panel featured professional statisticians and biostatisticians with careers that varied from working in academia and industry on global health problems to working on optimizing baseball operations for the Boston Red Sox. The panelists included Dr. Katy McKeough, Analyst at the Boston Red Sox (a 2020 statistics PhD alum), Dr. Sowmya R. Rao, Senior Research Scientist at Boston University’s Department of Global Health, Dr. Abby Sloan (a 2019 biostatistics PhD alum), Biostatistician at Pfizer, and Dr. Pooja Saha, Research Associate at Harvard’s Center for Biostatistics in AIDS Research.
Volunteers Share Their Favorite Moments
During lunchtime, FND attendees continued their conversations about statistics and data science in college and beyond, discovering some serendipitous moments in the process. “Meeting with the students and their families (during lunch) was the most impactful part of the day; I loved listening to the young people and their aspirations for how to influence the world in a positive way,” said volunteer Camlinh To, a Research and Data Manager at the Boston Public Schools and a Harvard Ed.M. graduate. When we asked another volunteer, Ace I. Mejia-Sanchez, a statistics concentrator, about their takeaway from the day, Ace also emphasized their connections to participants and appreciation of the parents/guardians in attendance. “While helping out a parent after lunch,” stated Ace, “I found out that one of the parent’s children, a first-generation college student, convinced the parent to come to this event.” Ace elaborated on the aspects of FND that resonated the most with them: “Speaking from my own experience with parents from a similar background, I feel that this is the audience that we desperately need to reach. It can be quite difficult to engage the parents of first generation or low-income students, not because they don't want to support their children, but because they feel unwelcome in these spaces. Their presence was definitely the highlight of my day.”
Statistics and Data Science: Fun, Cool, for Everyone
In closing, statistics concentrator Dinan Elsyad handed out prizes and reiterated a crucial reminder that statistics and data science are fun, cool, and for everyone. After a jam-packed day of statistics activities, participants and volunteers took one more selfie with “Flo” (our life-sized, historical cut-out of Nightingale) before heading out. We thank all participants, panelists, volunteers*, and sponsors* for making this a successful, enriching day, and we look forward to hosting everyone again next year!
*Note: Sponsors included the Boston Chapter of the American Statistical Association; Citadel & Citadel Securities; RStudio, PBC; Hudson River Trading; and Harvard’s Department of Statistics, Department of Biostatistics, and the Harvard Data Science Initiative, and alumni. The planning committee consisted of Dr. Kelly McConville (Senior Lecturer in Statistics), Dr. Linda Harrison (Research Scientist, Center for Biostatistics in AIDS Research, Harvard School of Public Health), Ginnie Ma (mathematics concentrator), Dinan Elsyad (statistics concentrator), Amy Zhou (biostatistics PhD student), Biyonka Liang (statistics PhD student), and Emily Palmer (Administrative Coordinator in Statistics).
