UTSA School of Data Science
If you’ve followed our blog for a while, you might recall the story of Julius Cervantes and Hugo Sanchez. As students in my AP Stats class in San Antonio, they identified some potentially misleading data visuals in a powerpoint presented by our district’s superintendent. So, they downloaded the powerpoint, corrected the misleading features (e.g. rescaled truncated y-axes), and sent it back to district leaders. As you might imagine, this made me quite nervous. However, to the district’s great credit, they sat down with Julius and Hugo to talk through norms for graphs in future presentations and offered them a data science internship the following summer! Julius and Hugo’s story exemplifies how the math we teach can become an empowering tool for students - especially if we make that math genuinely relevant.
Julius Cervantes & Hugo Sanchez
Now, Hugo studies math at Trinity University, and Julius studies finance and data science at The University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA). Julius is a first-generation college student and, recently, was offered an internship as a data analyst for USAA (San Antonio’s largest company)!
San Antonio isn’t traditionally known for its Universities. However, the city has an underappreciated and robust ecosystem of Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) - colleges that receive federal designation for serving a high proportion of Hispanic students. Now, excitingly, San Antonio's city-wide network of HSIs includes a brand new School of Data Science.
Julius’s school – The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) – opened its newly built $91.8 million School of Data Science this past January. This makes UTSA the first and only Hispanic-serving institution in the United States with a school of data science. A central part of the school’s mission is to bring cutting-edge data science opportunities to students like mine.
I’m excited to announce that Skew The Script and UTSA School of Data Science have begun partnering in various capacities, as we collaborate in creating a data science pipeline for traditionally underserved students – from K12, to college, to the workforce, and beyond. As part of this partnership, UTSA School of Data Science has begun sponsoring several Skew The Script lessons, and we’re grateful for their support.
I recognize that teachers outside of Texas may be less familiar with UTSA. So, I asked UTSA School of Data Science’s founding director – David Mongeau – to write a bit about his background, the school, and its mission. David has been a dynamic leader for the brand new school. In addition, his personal story with data science shows how the new and evolving discipline can really bring people together - you'll see what I mean below. Enjoy!
Let’s skew it!
SPONSORED CONTENT
By David Mongeau (guest contributor)
It is fair to say that data science was not my first love. However, it did play a pivotal role in finding my soulmate. As an undergraduate student majoring in poetry at Carnegie Mellon University, I was fortunate to have been exposed to statistics and programming classes – the same classes where a particular student caught my eye. She made learning empirical methods, logic, and coding entertaining, especially since it required us to study together. In the end, I married my classmate and my minor in data analysis catapulted me into a fulfilling career in data science. Currently, I am serving as the Founding Director of the School of Data Science at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).
Data science is all about understanding how data – in the form of video, text, sound, integers, and images – available on a device like a phone or laptop and online or in the cloud can be used to gain insights and solve problems. It’s not just facts and numbers. Students in K-12 across all areas of study – including creative writing – can benefit from exposure to how data is generated and becomes available to use for good in areas about which they care. For example, in social studies, students can be exposed to data science in demographics and historical timelines to uncover global issues. In art, they can express themselves through data visualizations and digital works. In music, sounds can be recorded and analyzed for tempos, keys, chords, acoustics, and audience engagement. In physical education, data can be extracted from all types of activities with cameras and sensor. Data science can be made tangible and relatable in any classroom, if we make math and statistics relevant because they are integral to using data well.
At the UTSA School of Data Science, we are committed to inspiring and preparing data scientists who can make our world more equitable, informed, and secure. I am proud to be working at one of only five schools of data science in the country, and the one with the most diverse student body. I want students from all over the country to join me here, and so the school is investing in Skew The Script to help pave the way. Let’s together equip all students with the invaluable data science knowledge and skills that they need to improve their lives and our world.
David Mongeau
Founding Director, School of Data Science
Professor of Practice, University College
The University of Texas at San Antonio