2022-2023 Minor Ambassadors
Meet the 2022-2023 Data Science Minor Admission Ambassadors! These undergraduate students come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. They are all pursuing the data science minor with different goals and career objectives. Reach out to this year's ambassadors with any questions you have about the data science minor.
Quinn Glovier
Major: Government
Hometown: Virginia Beach, VA
Pronouns: she/her
Why did you chose to do a data science minor?
I chose the Data Science minor because of its accessibility to students of all different majors. The program requires minimal background knowledge on the subject, and the courses are designed for students of varying academic backgrounds and skill levels.
How do you plan to use Data Science to change/shape the world?
As a government major, I hope to utilize my education in Data Science for a career in public policy. People often consider politics as exclusively a humanities subject, but political research often involves data analysis. Whether it be predicting voting trends, or analyzing the impact of a law on the people it affects, data science is quite useful for understanding the world around us. My learned skills from the Data Science Minor will help me to assess the political makeup of my community, along with how to improve it.
What are you looking forward to this academic year?
In my final year as a UVA undergrad, I am looking forward to enjoying time with my friends and participating in all the school's traditions one more time. Autumn is also my favorite time of year in Charlottesville, so I am excited to see the leaves change around grounds, watch football on the hill at Scott Stadium, and of course Halloween!
What is a fun fact about you?
I love skiing! I learned to ski when I was 5 years old, and try to ski as much as possible during the winter.
Akhil Havaldar
Major: Economics and Statistics
Hometown: Fairfax, VA
Pronouns: he/him
Why did you chose to do a data science minor?
I chose to pursue the minor because of its versatility in the job market, and because it allowed me to look into many different career options.
How do you plan to use Data Science to change/shape the world?
The world is rapidly succumbing to the adverse effects of climate change. If we don’t do anything to combat the climate crisis now, there won’t be a world for me to change. With my data science minor, I want to explore as many solutions as I can to help solve the climate crisis. I think of data science as a toolbox.
What are you looking forward to this academic year?
This year, I am looking forward to exploring the job market (seeing where my DS minor takes me), and being an ambassador here at SDS!
What is a fun fact about you?
I drive a stick shift car!
Peter Layne
Major: Foreign Affairs
Hometown: Austin, TX
Pronouns: he/him
Why did you chose to do a data science minor?
The Data Science minor provided an opportunity to grow my academic pursuits and build valuable hard skills in a field I was interested in.
How do you plan to use Data Science to change/shape the world?
I hope to in my time at UVA to find new applications of Data Science techniques. I am particularly interested in natural language processing and sentiment analysis. In the fall of 2021, through a class at UVA, I was assigned a project attempting to measure and analyze Chinese military and economic signaling regarding Taiwan. Working with two members of the US Military’s China Strategic Focus Group, I was able to conduct some rudimentary data science measuring events and analyzing basic trends. While I greatly enjoyed this experience, I felt that the project could have been quickly improved using more advanced data science techniques. Using sentiment analysis on social media platforms could help unlock valuable insights in a project like this. I hope to be able to combine my knowledge of Data Science as well as my Foreign Affairs major in order to find new uses for Data Science.
What are you looking forward to this academic year?
I'm looking forward to taking a number of 4000 level seminars, especially the SDS project course. I'm really excited to be able to take a deep dive on a couple of different topics and projects. Finally, I'm excited to enjoy my final year at UVA; I love this university and the community built around it.
What is a fun fact about you?
I've completed the Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin Challenge.
Amelia Norman
Major: Computer Science
Hometown: Las Vegas, NV
Pronouns: she/her
Why did you chose to do a data science minor?
I am interested in the process of using data and technology to cause social and/or environmental change -- the data science minor allows me to do that.
How do you plan to use Data Science to change/shape the world?
In future work, I plan to work with and analyze data to support sustainability efforts, data privacy arrangements, and/or humanitarian efforts.
What are you looking forward to this academic year?
I am excited for my personal career and academic development -- I have a few classes queued up for the upcoming year that I can't wait to take and use that information in various personal projects. As a member of the executive board in Girls Who Code, I am also extremely excited for how this year's events, hackathon, and experiences go!
What is a fun fact about you?
I was (almost) on a reality show!
Avery Schebell
Major: Systems Engineering
Hometown: Richmond, VA
Pronouns: she/her
Why did you chose to do a data science minor?
I chose to pursue a data science minor because I wanted to learn how to put the skills I’ve been learning in the classroom into practice, as well as learn more about the growing industry of data science.
How do you plan to use Data Science to change/shape the world?
I want to use data driven decision making to increase the efficiency of processes and improve the world around me as a consultant or data analyst. The combination of the data science minor with my engineering degree will allow me to look at problems from a whole new perspective.
What are you looking forward to this academic year?
I’m looking forward to taking Data Science Systems in the fall, as we will be discussing local database construction and cloud base systems.
What is a fun fact about you?
I am the Artistic Director for a Kpop dance CIO on Grounds called APEX Dance Crew.
Michael Vaden
Major: Computer Science
Hometown: Newport Beach, CA
Pronouns: he/him
Why did you chose to do a data science minor?
I chose to do the data science minor because I believe that it is supplementary not only to computer science, but to whatever I choose to do with my career after college. I think that data science is a burgeoning industry, and the data science minor has given me many new avenues as well as insights.
How do you plan to use Data Science to change/shape the world?
I have two aspirations for my future. The first is that I want to be involved in creating, managing, and analyzing technology that helps people. My education has opened my eyes to the analytical power that is made possible through Data Science. I want to use data gathering, exploration, and machine learning to not only create advertising models that allow world-changing technology to reach as many people as possible, but also deeply examine and predict the effectiveness of technology to make the largest impact possible. Second, I am incredibly interested in sports analytics and the NFL. I want to use Data Science principles to increase the competitiveness of teams around the NFL as we enter an era of advanced sports analytics.
What are you looking forward to this academic year?
I am first and foremost looking forward to finishing my data science curriculum with the data science project course. I am very excited to implement the knowledge I have gained from my previous data science classes while working in a group setting. I am also very excited to take classes outside of my major and general curriculum. I only have one year of college left and want to broaden the scope of my studies before I go out into the real world. Lastly, I want to spend time this upcoming year exploring the greater area of Charlottesville and making the most of my time here.
What is a fun fact about you?
Everybody in my family, myself included, is left-handed!