Student Spotlight: Elaine Li ’24
Today we are highlighting Elaine Li (’24) and her experience with Vanderbilt’s Data Science Minor!
“As an incoming freshman four years ago, I knew nothing about data science. All I knew was that I wanted to take at least one coding class in my college career. I ended up taking the introductory Python class. In this class, I learned about all the things coding could do, such as creating experiments, analyzing data, and drawing conclusions. I am a Psychology and MHS major, and my goal is to work in the research field, attend graduate school, and eventually conduct research that informs and advocates for policies that will improve health outcomes. The data science minor has certainly taught me useful coding languages like Python and R, which I’ll use to clean and analyze data in my research lab. These skills are transferable to other languages, and made it easier for me to learn Stata and SPSS informally. It has also altered the way I think about and interpret data, which is a crucial component of research. While some of the classes can be hard, it’s been fun to think through problems logically and step-by-step, and I’m so grateful for everything I’ve learned.”