Outreach and Community Partnership

Little girl holding "data science is for me" sign. — A Clark Elementary School student proudly holds her coloring page during STEM Night.

The School of Data Science is committed to expanding the accessibility and relevancy of data science in our local community. Faculty, staff, and students work in partnership with local schools, nonprofits, and STEM advocates to bring data science to local youth.

K-12 Outreach and Programming

Siri Russell and students — School of Data Science associate dean for DEI and community partnerships, Siri Russell, guides interested elementary-age students in an introductory data science activity during STEM night.

Elementary Age

School of Data Science students and staff attend school STEM nights and fairs with interactive data science activities.
The School of Data Science has created a “data detectives” activity series for elementary-aged friends to explore the world around them through the lens of data science.
Contact us for more information or to have us visit your school/group!

Data Detectives — A data detectives activity guide and instruments being used by Camp Wildrock participants during summer 2024.

Two girls at Camp Wildrock — Camp Wildrock students collecting data in the natural world while completing the data detectives activity.

Middle Grades

The School of Data Science has been a multi-year participant in the Starr Hill Pathways program. We offer school year and summer programs introducing data science to middle grade students through the lens of sports, specifically basketball. These programs support our effort to bring the field to life for young people, show them the vast career possibilities it can offer, and perhaps most of all, promote a sense of belonging in data science for students who may have never envisioned that it could be a field they could be a part of.
Major partners in this work have been the Sports Analytics Club Program and C4K.

Starr Hill Pathways participants, their School of Data Science mentors, and Sports Analytics Club Program representatives pose after completing their summer 2023 data science experience.

Basketball — Middle grades students collect data on the basketball court as a part of the Starr Hill sports analytics program.

High School

The School of Data Science offers a high school level challenge for Virginia students. The 2023/24 Data and Society Challenge was a competition open to all 11th and 12th grade school students in the Commonwealth of Virginia interested in learning about data science. The competition was designed to raise awareness and interest in pursuing data science as a possible course of study and a career path. More information on the 2024 challenge can be found here. Information about our next challenge coming soon!

Community Data Partnerships

Code for Charlottesville

In 2019, Jonathan Kropko, a Quantitative Foundation Associate Professor of Data Science, and UVA statistics student Elyse Lee created a Code for Charlottesville Chapter of Code for America. Since then, Charlottesville community members have been gathering (virtually since COVID-19) to collaborate, code, and work together on important issues in Charlottesville including with the city street light network, criminal record expungement, and pro bono IT consulting. Learn more about their most recent project.

Community Data Fellows

Learn more about this program, a collaboration between the School of Data Science and UVA's Equity Center that supports a small group of graduate students as they develop skills to promote community-engaged and equity-centered data science.