ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A group of Allentown teens has spent the summer learning how to collect, sort and make sense of data — a skill set that may help them land a job one day.
“As there’s more and more data available about people and processes, we need people who can work with it,” said Brennan Pursell, director of the Center for Data Analytics and Applied AI at DeSales University.
Since mid-June, Pursell has been teaching 19 high school students about data analytics as part of the Allentown Summer Artificial Intelligence Institute. The new partnership between DeSales and the Allentown School District provides students with the data skills they’ll need to be career ready as the world increasingly goes digital.
Pursell, director of the new AI Institute, said data is essential in all kinds of career fields: accounting, finance, human resources, logistics and supply chain management, retail, health care and more.
The program is another example of ASD’s renewed focus on job training opportunities and local partnerships under Superintendent Carol Birks.
The Allentown School Board approved the partnership in May, allocating $166,291 from the general fund to support the program.
The eight-week institute provides students with 288 hours of data analytics training at the DeSales University Hub at 932 Hamilton St. in Allentown.
Pursell said the teens have been concentrating throughout class and picking up data concepts quickly.
“I’m so impressed,” said Pursell, who’s also a DeSales business professor. “They’re just a good bunch.”
Students earn a stipend of up to $4,355 for attending the AI Institute; they’re considered participants in the district’s internship program that pays students to work.
Upon completion of the AI Institute, students earn six college credits through DeSales. They’ll also earn a Google Data Analytics Certificate. The AI Institute ends Aug. 8.
“The college credits are nice because it helps me to have more freedom to explore my options and see what I’m truly interested in and what I can do when I go to get my bachelor’s degree,” said Jasmine Little, 16, a rising junior at Dieruff High School and participant in the summer program.
Throughout the AI Institute, students learned about data and how it’s stored, as well as how to use spreadsheet programs, such as Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. They also got some practice coding in the R programming language and visualizing data with graphs and illustrations in Tableau.
“It’s been really fun,” said Laniya Anderson, 17, a rising senior at Building 21 who hopes to study business management in college.
Jasmine said learning about Excel was her favorite part of the AI Institute.
“I’m definitely more confident with it,” she said.
Conditional formatting is a particularly helpful tool, she added.
That feature allows an Excel user to change the appearance of cells based on certain conditions or criteria. This may mean changing the color of a cell or its border to differentiate data.
Jasmine plans to use the feature to help her grandmother keep track of the inventory of crocheted clothing that the two sell online. Conditional formatting will allow them to easily highlight which items have sold, she said.
Pursell also taught students how to use structured query learning (SQL) on large databases.
“It’s through SQL queries you can say, ‘Show me these columns or these conditions,’” he said. “You speak to, you dialogue with, you query the database to show you the data you need.
“And that’s also where you can do analysis,” he added. “Getting exposed to working with databases is really important.”
The students also collected their own data through a class project focused on Allentown’s Franklin Park neighborhood, which has high eviction and vacancy rates. They shared the data with the City of Allentown and the Leonard Parker Pool Institute for Health — the two organizations have teamed up to study the community health of the neighborhood.
Students combed Franklin Park in July to collect information about the businesses open there and whether they hire teens. They also gathered data on the availability of fresh food and hygiene products, as well as the presence of blight, such as vandalism and trash.
After visiting the neighborhood, the students used the data to brainstorm ways to improve the community.
With only three teens hired at businesses in Franklin Park, they began to think of ways to provide more young people with jobs.
One suggestion was to have the city run a summer recreation camp in Franklin Park that employs teens to chaperone younger children.
“They came up with cool ideas of things to do,” Pursell said.
Throughout the AI Institute, students also went on field trips and heard from local data professionals.
One such experience was a trip to Allentown City Hall where they heard from Mayor Matt Tuerk and members of his administration about how data is used and displayed in local government.
The city has collected information on everything from the availability of bike racks and basketball courts to COVID-19 cases to the home zip codes of visitors to Lights in the Parkway each year.
“What caught me as surprising is the city is really involved in data,” said George Ramirez, 16, a rising junior at Dieruff.
“To see that they have these complex systems, it was good to see the transition into this new format,” he said. “They’re thinking about the future.”
As for the future of the Allentown Summer AI Institute, both Pursell and a spokesperson for ASD said DeSales and the district hope to continue the partnership in future years, but nothing has been solidified yet for next summer.