For the fifth year, GC Digital Initiatives and the Mina Rees Library are accepting applications from Graduate Center students who have achieved an introductory fluency with the Python programming language to participate in a collaborative project designed to provide experience working with public-facing data and programming to produce a collaborative project for the public good.
This year applicants will be submitting as a group (3-7 students) with a dataset and project proposal. The successful applicants will work for a semester with project advisors to realize their project. The “Data for Public Good” fellows as a group will work together on a public-interest dataset of their choice to create a project that makes the dataset useful and informative to a public audience.
Why participate?
Students will benefit from hands-on experience working with their chosen dataset, learning how teams collaborate to solve open-ended data problems. Through participation, fellows will become familiar with project management, project design, and collaborative coding. By the end of the semester, fellows will present their work to the GC community during the GC Digital Showcase. Fellows will each receive a $1000 financial aid award in Spring 2023.
What do I need to know?
Skills required for participation include: familiarity with Google sheets and basic Python programming. The Data for Public Good project has the opportunity to grow based on the talents and skills fellows have to share. Additional desired skills may include but are not limited to: JavaScript, Tableau, ArcGIS or QGIS, social media, science communication, and/or R.
What is the commitment?
Fellows will be expected to: attend all scheduled meetings, set and meet weekly group and individual goals, write brief blog posts about their work, and present a completed project--ranging from a digital narrative to a visualization to a web application--in May.
Who is eligible?
Applicants should be current Graduate Center students in good standing. To apply, complete the online application form, including the submission of a resume or c.v.
What should be in your proposal?
We want to know:
- What type of data will you be using?
What question will you attempt to answer?
Do you have an approach in mind?
What will you need as far as materials and/or mentoring?
How does the proposed project serve the public?
What gap will the research fill?
How do I apply?
Eligible GC students should complete the online application form by Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 5:00 PM.
Questions about the application and program should be directed to Lisa Rhody, Deputy Director of Digital Initiatives (lrhody@gc.cuny.edu) or Stephen Zweibel, Digital Scholarship Librarian (szweibel@gc.cuny.edu).
