Bellarmine University is soliciting applications for the Butterfly Project, a virtual, paid internship opportunity made possible through a new strategic partnership with Central High School, the Microsoft Future Work Initiative, Louisville Urban League, and TECH-Nique, Inc. In this internship, Bellarmine students will work with Central High School students to learn how to empower our communities with data storytelling. You will explore data in efforts to inform and address issues related to jobs, justice, education, health, and housing.
Project Mission
Connect high school and college students with community issues and partners to apply skills in data and technology that lead to a more equitable and just community.
Internship Benefits
This is a paid internship for academic credit. Bellarmine students must register the experience for 3-credit hours in spring 2021 and will commit to provide 90 hours of work at $15/hr (not to exceed $1,350 in earnings). Internship will run Jan. 4 – April 1, 2021. Students will officially intern with the Microsoft Future Work Initiative.
Opportunity Overview
Over the course of the spring semester, ten students from Bellarmine and ten students from Central High School will work together to apply data science, machine learning, and AI directly to a project that addresses important community issues of jobs, justice, education, health, or housing. The participants will be divided into five groups of four (with two Bellarmine students and two Central students in each group).
Job Description
- Attend weekly team meetings to learn about technology and community issues, discuss the project, and share individual progress. Students will dedicate approximately 7-10 hours per week to the internship project.
- Complete supplemental training on data analysis and technology platforms. Students will develop a basic understanding of Python, machine learning, data analytics, AI, and cloud services.
- Students will work with community organizations connected to their social justice topic to learn about systemic inequities and gain a better understanding of the challenges data and technology may be able to reduce/remove.
- Students will acquire open-access data sets and learn and apply data science and machine learning to the data sets to illuminate barriers, gaps, challenges, and inequities.
- Students will analyze and visualize data to communicate a compelling story about the barriers that exist and will discuss opportunities for positive change with the community partner.
- Students will present their findings in collaboration with the community organization partners to the larger community.
- Students will develop a collaborative project summary with their community organization partners including 1) overview of the social justice issue, 2) data analysis and data visualization, and 3) community recommended next steps.
Applications will be accepted through November 30.
For more information about the project or to apply, visit the posting on Handshake. If you have specific questions, you may contact Dr. Rob Kelley at rkelley@bellarmine.edu, Dr. Jakia Marie at jmarie@bellarmine.edu, or Dr. Lilly Massa-McKinley at lmassamckinley@bellarmine.edu.