C*****n

I am a teacher, community organizer, and general jack-of-most-trades looking to take my career in a new direction as a Data Analyst. My insatiable curiosity and desire to help others led me to my first dream job as a college instructor of composition and rhetoric. Here I pushed students to articulate their thoughts in writing, construct and analyze arguments, research systematically and intelligently, interpret data, and think critically about the world around them. I likewise honed my skills collecting, cleaning, and analyzing data through an award-winning qualitative research project on relationship building, and a cross-department collaboration in perceptual dialectology. This was some of the most fun I had at work–whether I was transcribing in-depth interviews of couples, or scouring over maps of the Midwest to code participant’s judgements of language and place.

I really fell in love with using data to help others while working at a charter school in Austin, TX. I leveraged test scores, checkpoints, and qualitative observations to pinpoint skill deficits, implement academic and behavioral interventions, track progress, and inform my teaching practices. This (along with a playful, gamified approach) paved the way to raise student math scores by nearly 40% by the end of the year. After being laid off from that charter due to financial difficulties (the school has unfortunately since shut down), I ran a small social media campaign on Instagram and TikTok to raise nearly $2,700 to replenish the money I’d saved toward my gender affirming care.

A move to Des Moines, IA kick-started the most challenging leg of my career, but ultimately the most transformative. I was very disheartened from the layoff and uncertain about my career direction. So, I threw myself into the community. I organized a small open mic night at a local coffee shop. I did some training and development consulting for a local business, developing training materials and data-informed feedback on employee retention strategies. I organized a clothing swap at my home, raising money for a friend in need of surgery, and for a local mutual aid org (I even created a live Dashboard using Excel to track donations!).

These days, I work at Storyhouse Bookpub as a Bookseller, and Moulton Elementary School teaching Social Emotional Learning. I can’t wait to see what professional and community collaborations come next.