Scaling Impact: How Community Colleges are Shaping Data Science Access (feat. Kyla Oh)

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“The biggest challenge for us initially was just, where does data science live? Is it in your math department? Is it in your computer science department? Who's going to teach it? Are you going to have a math faculty? Computer science faculty? And then once you decide where it's going to be, then you have to ensure that you have faculty who are willing to teach, because the class is challenging: it does require some programming, as well as statistical analysis, so it's a lot for a faculty. Usually faculty don't have both of those skills, so that's a challenge.”

In this episode, we sit down with Kyla Oh, Acting Dean of Math, Science, and Career Education at Berkeley City College. Kyla shares her unique path from engineering to patent law and now community college leadership. Together, we discuss the evolving role of community colleges in expanding access to data science education, as well as the challenges that come with building out new programs. Kyla discusses the importance of collaboration across departments and institutions as a means of expanding data science across schools, and highlights the power of support programs and internships to keep students motivated.

“I treat my students like clients. If my students are not showing up to class, then I feel like, oh, I'm doing something wrong. And the same with our industry partners—I want to be able to bring in industry partners, so I have to treat them like clients. Like, how can we best serve you and ensure that that partnership is mutually beneficial?”

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