BSIS student Anee Anisa discusses her practicum experience at the American College of Emergency Physicians, a professional organization of emergency medicine physicians in the U.S.
What is your area of interest at the iSchool?
My area of interest is the data science/analytics pathway. More specifically, I'm interested in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Where did you do your practicum, and what was your role?
For my practicum, I worked as a data analyst at the American College of Emergency Physicians in my hometown of Irving, Texas.
How did you find out about the practicum?
After finding out about the practicum through Handshake, I sent an email to the company to further show my interest in the position.
What knowledge and skills did you acquire?
I acquired skills in Monday.com, which is a platform where we have our centralized information. I used a lot of Python in VS Code for running tests and updating queries for the behind-the-scenes work. On a daily basis, I worked with SQL and in Power BI.
What did you like best about working at the organization?
I liked the collaborative environment and connections between departments. Although data analysis can sound like a "sit behind the desk" job, there's a lot of behind-the-scenes collaboration with teammates and other people related to the work I was doing. It was nice to see how all the departments come together for a common goal and how coworkers within a project interact.
What advice do you have for students who are interested in a practicum?
I would recommend showing interest in the company through personalized emails, connections through events, or even workshops held by the company. I found personalizing resumes for each application to be more beneficial than mass emailing; it results in better algorithm matches and higher chances of getting an internship.
What are your plans after you complete your degree?
My plan is to go to grad school and focus on machine learning, neural networks, or artificial intelligence (based on what I find myself more passionate about after taking courses in those subjects). I hope to do some lab research in these areas in the future as well and push the boundaries of our knowledge system.