Harvard Undergraduates Organize Women in Statistics and Data Science Panel
In a cozy alcove at Henrietta’s Table in Harvard Square, a group of Harvard undergraduates and graduate students chatted about their classes, hobbies, and career aspirations. They were dining with speakers from a Women in Statistics and Data Science Panel hosted by the Group for Undergraduates in Statistics at Harvard (GUSH) and the Harvard College Women’s Center (HCWC) as part of Women’s Week 2023 at Harvard and Women’s History Month. The panel brought together a wide range of speakers: Amanda Cox, former Head of Special Data Projects at USAFacts and Editor at the New York Times; Kelly McConville, Senior Lecturer in Statistics at Harvard University; Sowmya R. Rao, Senior Research and Data Analysis Scientist in the Department of Global Health at Boston University and a consultant for multiple organizations; and Kim Nguyen, Quantitative Investment Analyst at Alphataraxia Management (and a Master of Statistics 2021 alum!). We decided to revisit this pivotal event for and produced by Harvard students, Alice Wu, Ginnie Ma, Joyce Park, Michelle Qin, Sarah Cao, and Srihari Ganesh, to celebrate their achievements and share their personal career insights.
Panelists Share Their “Statistics Journeys”
Day in the Life of Our Panelists
The panelists provided the audience with a window into their day-to-day lives. While they all work on tough statistics and data-science related problems that require frequent communication with colleagues, students, clients, and other stakeholders, there are also substantial variations in their schedules and how they spend their time. For example, McConville structures her mostly in person work during the semester around her meetings, teaching, advising, department administration (particularly as the Co-Director of Undergraduate Studies), and research. On the other hand, Rao, as a consultant for UNICEF, Massachusetts General Hospital, and other organizations, frequently creates her own schedule and often works remotely. As our students start navigating different jobs, it’s helpful for them to consider questions, such as, what balance of work, independent vs. collaborative, administrative vs. core content area, remote vs. in-person, and scheduled vs. flexible, is most suited to me and my work style?
Advice on Seeking Mentorship
The panelists shared how mentorship can arise from different types of relationships: student to student, faculty to student, colleague to colleague, senior employee to junior employee, etc. “When seeking mentorship,” said Cox, “Pay attention to whom you're drawn to and why, whether because of their personal qualities, professional skills and interests, or both.” Cox described a mentor at the Federal Reserve who made charts in his free time, inspiring her own interest in visual representations of data. Nguyen’s moment of stats inspiration arrived when she was a junior in high school. She complained to a friend in his senior year about her terrible sleep patterns, and in response, the friend coded a graph that demonstrated that less sleep correlated with the winter season. Nguyen was transfixed; this is what she wanted to do, so she asked her friend to teach her. In her freshman year of college, Nguyen took Statistics 110 (Introduction to Probability) with Professor of the Practice Joe Blitzstein. While Nguyen felt that she struggled in the course, she took advantage of Joe’s office hours and advising and persevered, eventually returning to the course as a teaching fellow. Reflecting on these different mentoring experiences, Nguyen explained, “It’s important to have both mentors that push me (e.g. professors) and peer mentors whom I just feel comfortable with (and can ask all of my Gen Z questions!).”
On the topic of mentorship, Rao and McConville emphasized the importance of building and maintaining a professional network. These professional networks are not only important when searching for jobs but are also important for supporting a sense of community and intellectual growth. McConville spoke about when she met Blitzstein at an event at one of her former institutions, Swarthmore College: “Joe and I chatted about his visit as well as about his kids and Winnie the Pooh! We stayed in each other’s professional network, but I had no idea that later I would become a Senior Lecturer at Harvard and would be a Co-Director of Undergraduate Studies with him.” Similarly, Rao has worked on maintaining her professional relationships and described how she frequently consults her former PhD advisor and postdoc advisor on certain problems and for letters of reference. To continue to have a strong network, Rao recommended that students reach out at least once a year to professional contacts to exchange updates on their lives and careers.
Advice for Young Data Scientists and Statisticians
At the end of the panel, audience members asked how to prepare for the next steps in their careers and decide whether to pursue graduate school. Related to this question, McConville quipped, “When the refrain ‘let epsilon be greater than zero’ still rolled off my tongue, I knew grad school was in the cards!” McConville elaborated on her decision process, “Some students reach the end of their senior year and they feel burnt out or need a change of setting, but other students still enjoy the rhythm and unconventional schedule of school and are eager to continue. There isn’t a right or wrong since students can also have very satisfying careers without obtaining a master’s or PhD.” To help determine whether grad school is the right next step, our undergraduates can take several different actions, including speaking with our master’s and PhD students and faculty advisors and pursuing a thesis and other research-related projects. Cox and Nguyen both advised that students take their time making this decision because grad school, particularly a PhD program, requires substantial commitment and drive. While some students find it easier and more natural to transition directly from undergrad to grad school, other students may work outside of academia before deciding that graduate school is the right option for them.
The panelists acknowledged the importance of developing technical skills, but they also emphasized cultivating certain social skills, which can sometimes be overlooked when preparing for careers in data science and statistics. Rao and McConville revealed how communication skills have mattered to them in their careers. Practicing and refining her communication skills has helped McConville to code, collaborate, teach, and present research in an effective way for different audiences, thus contributing to her career advancement in academia. During her work as a consultant for organizations like Massachusetts General Hospital, the VA Medical Center, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization, Rao has exercised her skill at collaborating with and communicating statistical methods and findings to a broad stakeholder audience.
Panelists also commented on the skill of self-reflection to determine strengths and what you value most in your job. For example, Rao’s self-reflection early in her career led to the realization that while she enjoyed working with and analyzing data, she sought a larger purpose: “It was important to me to think beyond the data about the larger impact of my work – I wanted my work to focus on helping the health of the community rather than on simply publishing papers.” In Nguyen’s case, she discovered that some of the qualities that she prized most in a job were an intellectually stimulating environment with co-workers who similarly valued learning new skills and concepts. Nguyen also shared how reflecting on the skills she had acquired as a teaching fellow helped her to develop confidence in herself as a statistician and to counter imposter syndrome, a feeling of self-doubt and lack of belonging. Through their discussion of self-reflection and communication skills, the panelists highlighted the value of nurturing less technically oriented skills to their future careers.
Panelist Bios:
