1. Summary of Data Services Internship
Startinginthe endof May 2015, I washiredto be the Data ServicesInternforthe SouthDakota
Dashboard.In mytime at the Dashboard,I completedavarietyof small projects,researchedRapidCity
School Districtenrollment,workedatNeutrinoDay,createdinfographics,andcompileddataongross
salesandgross receiptsforRapidCityandSioux Falls.
My firstprojectwasto compile grosssalesandgrossreceiptsdatafor RapidCityfromthe SouthDakota
Departmentof Revenue.Thisprojectwasof particularimportance,because previouslycompileddata
had showna collapse inthe manufacturingindustryatthe beginningof the recession. While the dataI
compileddifferedfrompreviouslycollectednumbers,itshowedthe same story. Towardthe endof the
summer,itwasfoundthat thiscollapse wasnota reality,butan allusionformedbyhow taxeswere
reported.The same data wascollectedforSioux Falls,andwe foundthatSioux Fallsisdividedintotwo
tax regions.
The creationof infographicssteamedfromanassignmenttomake “topten”listsforeach mainhubon
the SouthDakota Dashboardwebsite.Afterthe listswere created,Idecidedtotransformtheminto
infographics usingPictochart,andnow theyare usedonTriviaTuesdays!
NeutrinoDaywasa successandfull of lotof funfor bothus and the NeutrinoDaygoers. Atour booth,
we usedgraphson the South DakotaDashboardto quizkidson populationstatistics.If theyanswered3
to 5 questions,thentheygota piece of candy.It wasalsoa greatopportunitytotalkto the community
aboutthe resourcesofferedbythe SouthDakotaDashboardand the Black HillsKnowledge Network.
Small projectsincludedexpandingthe DataResourcespage,creatingpopulationtrendgraphicsforall
citiesandcountieson the BHKN website,generatinggraphicsforthe EducationDataSeries,developing
a minimumwage graphic,constructingothermiscellaneousgraphics,anddevelopingahow-to
documentforusingthe permanentpagesonthe Dashboard.
My largestprojectconsistedof tryingtouncoverwhythe RapidCityPublicSchool Systemhasnot
experiencedgrowthoverthe since 2000. Despite the factthatthe populationof RapidCityhasgrown
steadily,the populationof the school districthasstayedaroundthe same,droppingaround2004, and
thenbeginningtorise steadilyagain.Itwashypothesizedthat the economy, emigration,employment,
private school enrollment,generalfundexpenditure,age groupswithinthe population andpopulation
size couldaffectthe numberof studentsinthe school system.None of the previousfactorswere found
to conclusivelyexplainthe lackof growthor drop inpublicschool enrollmenthowever.Furtherresearch
and more extensive datawouldbe neededtodraw definitive conclusions.
I finished myinternshiponAugust31, and am sadto see it end.Duringmytime at the Dashboard,I was
able to learna lotfrom mycoworkersaboutthe economyand historyof SouthDakota,and inturn I was
able to helpthemwithmathematicalandgraphical tasks.It was a fantasticexperience,andIhope to
findanotherlike itonce Ifinishschool.