My name is Killian Hoyt, and I am a third-year Political Science major with minors in Spanish and Public Policy. This summer, I interned with Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities (OOD) to analyze their casework data from their Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program. The goal was to assess the demographics and trends of participants who return for VR services, to better understand and forecast the participant population. I used tools such as Tableau, R, and Excel to clean, analyze, and present my findings. The most challenging part of the internship was adapting my in-class knowledge of data analysis to real-world administrative data, which was far more complicated than I expected. This has also been the most rewarding aspect of the internship, as I was able to dive in and start to become an expert in a niche facet of OOD operations. My favorite part of this program was being able to integrate with the Data and Reporting Team at OOD and learn so much from them! I would recommend this internship to anyone interested in doing real-world data analysis and expanding their technical skills.

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My name is Yaqi Zhang, and I am a fourth-year Statistics major with a minor in Business Analytics. This summer, I interned with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Office of Research, Evaluation, and Advanced Analytics through the Public Sector Data Science Internship (PSDS) program. The reason why I chose this internship is to apply my statistical skills to real-world data and gain a deeper understanding of how data can inform public decision-making. My project focused on analyzing college-going patterns across Ohio counties using data from the National Student Clearinghouse. I used R for data cleaning and analysis, and Power BI to develop interactive dashboards that visualize trends by college type, cohort year, socioeconomic status, and test performance level. The most challenging part of the internship was learning Power BI for the first time and creating effective visualizations. My favorite part was collaborating with a supportive and knowledgeable team. I highly recommend this internship to anyone interested in data analysis and public sector work.

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My name is Floria Liu, and I am a fourth-year Marketing major with a minor in Business Analysis. This summer, I interned with the Ohio Department of Higher Education and worked on multiple projects to support data integrity and system improvement. One major project involved analyzing data quality for the Ohio Educator Preparation Annual Report, which is presented through a Tableau dashboard. The data came from internal systems, external partners, and a state-managed Oracle database. I used SQL, Tableau, and Excel to identify inconsistencies, detect missing values, and improve the accuracy of reporting. In another project, the Ohio Remediation Report, I used R and natural language processing techniques to clean and compare high school names across two datasets. I applied text normalization and string distance algorithms to identify potential matches. To validate these matches, I incorporated classification logic by evaluating true positives and false negatives, which helped refine the matching criteria and support accurate cross-agency data alignment. I applied to this internship because I wanted real-world experience applying data science skills in the public sector. The PSDS internship allowed me to work on meaningful projects that support transparency and decision-making in education. I really enjoyed working with real-world datasets that directly support education policy and accountability. It was rewarding to contribute to statewide reporting efforts, and I appreciated the opportunity to grow my technical skills while learning how different teams collaborate on public data projects. One of the biggest challenges was working with data from multiple sources without access to full documentation or backend systems. It required extra effort to interpret the data structure and ensure accuracy, especially when working with legacy systems or third-party contributions. While it was sometimes difficult, it also helped me strengthen my problem-solving and data validation skills. Overall, I would recommend this internship! You get to work on real projects that actually matter and use multiple tools. It’s not always easy and some parts take a lot of figuring out, but if you’re looking to learn and make an impact, it’s definitely worth it.

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My name is Zachary Howes, and I am a fourth-year Public Policy Analysis major with minors in Economics and International Studies. This summer, I worked with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) in the Labor Market Information Bureau (LMI) in the Office of Workforce Development (OWD). I assisted with a variety of data entry and cleaning projects, analyzed skill and credential data from job postings using RStudio and Tableau to create dashboards, and created natural language processing scripts for analyzing job postings data. For my project, I used data from TalentNeuron to identify what the most important skills and credentials for technicians are and visualized these in a Tableau dashboard published on the Ohio LMI website. I also created RStudio scripts to explore if ODJFS could develop customized natural language processing tools to better extract job ad data compared to commercial tools. My favorite thing about the internship was creating dashboards and learning how to convey data in an easy-to-understand way for a general audience. The most challenging thing about this internship was learning to code in R, as it was a language I had never coded in before. However, the ODJFS researchers that I worked with were incredibly helpful in teaching me how to use it. I would definitely recommend this internship to anyone who is interested in improving their data science skills or better understanding the experience of working in a state agency. I also think that the poster presentation at the end is a very useful means of highlighting the skills I built in a tangible way.

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The Ohio Education Research Center — a collaborative of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs and the CHRR — offers the Public Sector Data Science Internship Program for students interested in exploring careers in policy research and evaluation. This year, we were very excited to host three interns at state agencies across Columbus. Continue reading to learn more about the work they accomplished this summer. Our first intern of the week is Samuel Gadkar. Samuel is going into his third year of his Bachelor of Science in Data Analytics with a minor in economics at the College of Arts and Sciences. He interned with the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services to analyze data from their Re-employment Services and Eligibility Assessment program and uncover if RESEA was helping those it was intended for. His reflections on the internship are shared below: My name is Samuel Gadkar and I am entering my third-year majoring in Data Analytics with a minor in Economics. This summer, I am interning at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS). I was excited about the opportunity to be a PSDS intern due to the field of data science I would be working in. When you hear about data science, you often think about well-known private sector businesses, but I was intrigued to see how the data science field runs on the public sector side. With ODJFS, I did some analysis on their Re-employment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA). RESEA is a program that aims to help individuals who are receiving unemployment benefits along with some other program such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), or Child Support (CS). My portion of the work focused on people who were receiving unemployment benefits and SNAP in some combination of each other. Specifically, I worked to uncover if RESEA was helping those it was intended for, along with seeing which individuals we could include in this program. Using SQL and Tableau, I was able to gather, join, and visualize all the necessary data. My favorite part of the internship was getting to immerse myself in the data science field. My supervisor at ODJFS guided me throughout the summer, helping me learn new programs and understand how my work is going to be used. Additionally, getting to meet people who worked in the data science field on Fridays allowed me to see all the ways that data science is used in the public sector. I believe the most challenging part was having to learn two new programs (SQL and Tableau). I have used programs such as C++, Java, and R, but never touched SQL or made visualizations in Tableau before this summer. I would highly suggest students to pursue this internship. I felt like everyone at OERC and ODJFS wanted to see me succeed and grow. Their guidance really helped me improve my data science skills, while also learning what it is like to work in the world of data science. Without this internship, I wouldn’t have realized how much I enjoyed working in the public sector.

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The Ohio Education Research Center — a collaborative of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs and the CHRR — offers the Public Sector Data Science Internship Program for students interested in exploring careers in policy research and evaluation. This year, we were very excited to host three interns at state agencies across Columbus. Continue reading to learn more about the work they accomplished this summer. Our next intern of the week is Isabelle Frohlich. Isabelle is going into her second year of her Master of Arts in Public Policy and Management at the Glenn College. She interned with the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services (ODJFS) and used data from the Comprehensive Case Management and Employment Program to better understand how the program is performing and who it is serving. Her reflections on the internship are shared below: Hi, my name is Isabelle Frohlich and I’m going into my second year of my Master’s of Public Administration. I am working with the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. I did the PSDS internship to expand my skills in the data science field and strengthen my knowledge of the public sector. I am working with Comprehensive Case Management and Employment Program data. I received past data provided by an outside evaluator, ICF, and data from 2022 that I then transformed to match the past data. This work was done mostly in Excel. I then used R to combine the files and moved into Tableau. The data I have been working with primarily is new enrollee participants in the program. I have been creating various visualizations in Tableau for several variables, mostly working with barriers to employment for participants variables. My favorite thing so far has been meeting many people in the data science field and bonding with my fellow interns over problem solving. The most challenging part of the internship has been learning Tableau as I go, though I have learned so much! I would definitely recommend the internship to anyone who wants to learn more about the data science field or wants hands on experience with data!

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The Ohio Education Research Center — a collaborative of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs and the CHRR — offers the Public Sector Data Science Internship Program for students interested in exploring careers in policy research and evaluation. This year, we were very excited to host three interns at state agencies across Columbus. Continue reading to learn more about the work they accomplished this summer. Our next intern of the week is Ella Busch. Ella is going into her fourth year of her Bachelor of Science in Public Policy Analysis with minors in French and local government at the Glenn College. She interned with Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities (OOD) to assist with their Comprehensive Statewide Needs Assessment and analyzed data to examine the gaps in service for OOD participants. Her reflections on the internship are shared below: My name is Ella Busch, and I am a fourth-year Public Policy Analysis major with minors in French and Local Government. This summer I worked with Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities to assist with their Comprehensive Statewide Needs Assessment. I used surveys from vocational rehabilitation staff and service providers to examine the gaps in service for OOD participants, by county and by service for the Comprehensive Statewide Needs Assessment. I used mainly Microsoft Excel and Tableau for this project. I really enjoyed public affairs 4040 (public sector data science) and I wanted to learn new things in that field. The most challenging part of this internship was learning about data cleaning and dealing with the consequences of different choices made early in the analysis process. My favorite part of the internship was the people I worked with, who helped me deal with the challenges in the internship. I would recommend this internship to anyone curious about data science and how it intersects with state government.

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