Hello all!
As week two comes to a close, I am extremely excited to share all about my new adventures during my first week out in the real world. I started my long-awaited internship on Tuesday with Not My Kid and could not have asked for a better start. From meeting the incredibly smart, witty, and kind staff, to getting acclimated in my new environment, I am so grateful to have been welcoming with open arms into the Not My Kid family and cannot wait for the rest of this journey. To give you an idea of how warm of an environment Not My Kid is, here are some photos of the office space during which I spend my time if I'm not out on the field during presentations:
This week was all about preparation, and, in such a complicated field like prevention, there was certainly a lot to do. After figuring out which presentations I would be attending and collection both primary and secondary data from (through both surveys and observation data), the next step was figuring out how the results would be analyzed so that the research could provide viable results. That is, the question became "How do we group the schools into specific characteristic groups that will allow us to find correlations in the data?" And, although I would have loved to been able to say "this school is in X city which means it has X risk factors and X protection factors," this task is much more complicated.
Just some AP stats for you today, this research all culminates in an observational study. That is, no variables are being controlled in the study, rather we are looking back at every piece of information we have in order to find connections and inferences that will give us insight on how to best effect the lives of these teens. Which essentially means it is IMPERATIVE that all the data be carefully collected and recorded and organized, a task I have a whole new level of respect for. This also means that graphs and charts are my new best friend as I've spent most of this week engrossed in creating and organizing them for the next couple of months.
I began by grouping schools by zip code. This allowed me to analyze risk factors such as graduation rates and average household income. By comparing both their ranking in Arizona on a basis of graduation rate and average household income, I was then able to further categorize the schools, grouping them with ones of similar risk status. From there, careful consideration of school district and location/proximity resulted in the following 6 groups.
It was vital to group them together for a couple of reasons. First, the groups will allow me to approach each school and presentation knowing general characteristics and risk factors of the area. Secondly, I will not be able to collect significantly more data on the risk and protection factors prevalent in each school. That is, the groupings allow me get data from the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission based on the groupings of the zip codes. Finally, this grouping will be an essential part in organizing the data, allowing me to compare the results from each presentation (with both the primary and secondary data) and to analyze the factors determining the effectiveness of the program.
Overall, it's been a great busy week. There was one hiccup in the road which ended up being quite an exciting learning experience as well. Aside from counting endless piles of surveys for the upcoming month (see below)
beautiful set up right?
All in all, it has been an incredible and productive first week. Preliminary data is organized, there is a clear plan for action, and I cannot wait to collect these new rounds of data in the upcoming weeks.
Until next time!
Shir
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ReplyDeleteI love the pictures, Shir! They really give me a sense of where you are spending your time and the tasks that you are performing. Do students every come to the Not My Kid office for counseling, intervention, etc.? It looks like a welcoming space.
ReplyDeleteEvery day, I wish that I were more Excel savvy! Did you ever take Mac's term project? Max Waaler mentioned that, for his statistics-related project, he now wishes he had!
Are you able to share the six group categorizations? I'd love to see them!
Thanks Ms. Mitrovich! The space really serves as the center for collaboration and that the student speakers who do the peer to peer presentations come through the office often. I, like Max, so wish that I would have taken that term project! Luckily I've worked with Excel quite a lot in planning and organizing for my youth group so it's definitely helped me get a head start!
DeleteThe six groupings include names of schools, so I won't be posting the groups by name on the blog for now but I'll be sharing more details about the groups next week!
Thanks for your comments!
It's great that you were finally able to begin working at your new workplace. The pictures make it look like a wonderful place. It's a bummer that the first presentation was a no show, but it can only get better from there. I look forward to hearing about your results from future presentations.
ReplyDeleteLooks like such a cozy and warm place to work at! I'm sorry about the presentation. I would love to see some of the slides of the presentation to see what type of things you say to teenagers!
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the no show presentation, they just don't know how awesome you are yet! But I would also like to see some of the slides from your presentation. That's probably the part that interests me the most, the actual interaction with the teens.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great experience! The office is certainly designed to foster that creativity, you can see that in the pictures. I can imagine the no show was probably disappointing, but probably gave you a realistic picture of what community outreach really looks like at times.
ReplyDeleteHow are you finding the demographic data such as household income, etc? I'm really interested to see the connection between these variables and the ratings on the presentations and data you get on the surveys.
What a great experience! The office is certainly designed to foster that creativity, you can see that in the pictures. I can imagine the no show was probably disappointing, but probably gave you a realistic picture of what community outreach really looks like at times.
ReplyDeleteHow are you finding the demographic data such as household income, etc? I'm really interested to see the connection between these variables and the ratings on the presentations and data you get on the surveys.
Well that first week was definitely a quick ramp up and I was excited for you to immediately see the challenges that come up with some communities. Definitely affects effectiveness. Glad you're here Shir!!!
ReplyDelete