Nile Miller

“Data doesn’t speak for itself,” explains Nile Miller (Certificate in Data Analytics '22). “Data analytics is a very technical field, but it involves a lot of thinking about the humans behind the numbers. Focusing on the human side of data is something that I try to push.” Having recently completed the Penn LPS Online Certificate in Data Analytics, Nile leveraged his data fluency and programming experience into a career shift: visualizing data for social good.

Prior to the certificate, Nile became interested in data-adjacent skills while working as a Global Initiatives Fellow at Penn. For example, he worked on a project that examined the different kinds of immigration-related delays experienced by international students coming to Penn, interpreting the numbers and trends for a high-profile presentation to key decision-makers. “That was a rewarding experience, to be able to develop things that people found useful and that made an impact in our office,” he reflects. “Of course, the storytelling is part of it, but also the numbers are a really good way to make an impact or make a point.”

Then Nile transitioned into a marketing position at Penn’s International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS), where working in web development gave him the opportunity to think about writing code as well as web content. “But wouldn't it be nice if I could formalize my knowledge somehow, and get some more technical skills and maybe theoretical or statistical mathematical foundations behind data?” he remembers thinking. The Certificate in Data Analytics gave him that opportunity, as well as the opportunity to learn the programming language R and to design a web app, which is one of the culminating projects of the certificate.

The first course, Nile recalls, “was very intense. It ended up being very heavy from the outset, which ended up being a good thing because I learned a whole lot. It was a lot of information and I needed to carve out time during my week to do it—it required me to think of myself as a student again.” In that introductory course, DATA 1010: Introduction to Data Analytics, Nile joined a study group with several of his classmates and met online after class to discuss the work. “That was a good way to network and connect with other people, and also hear other people's perspectives on how to approach the homework assignments,” he advises. “Be actively engaged in the class, reach out to your classmates, reach out to your instructors because they are very enthusiastic about talking to students.”

The Certificate in Data Analytics is one of the few Penn LPS Online certificates that must be taken in sequential order, and Nile found that the more advanced classes built on his knowledge from the rigorous introductory courses. “In my experience, the first course was really intense in teaching you all the syntax and functions and libraries of R,” Nile recalls. “Now it’s hard to even look at R as something hard and particular to learn, because it’s second nature.” It helped that the assignments went beyond abstractions, using real data sets to think through real challenges and opportunities in data analysis. “What I appreciate about the certificate is that it is kind of ‘data for social sciences,’” says Nile, who studied international relations and government for his undergraduate and graduate degrees. “A lot of the instructors are from the political science area and a lot of the materials are about elections. R is a quirky language, but because you’re practicing with actual data that you can make sense of about real-world events, you get a better handle on the language.” Nile also practiced using R at work: Whether he needed to select names from a random drawing for ISSS or segment communications to specific interests or nationalities within Penn’s diverse international student body, he found R more efficient than standard office software. “It’s a huge timesaver,” he says.

For the final course, DATA 4010: Advanced Topics in Data Analytics, students receive an open-ended assignment to create an interactive web app using a framework they learned in class. “I didn’t have an idea early on, but I went into the assignment knowing that I wanted to put a lot of effort into it and that social issues are of interest to me,” says Nile. He designed an app that allows users to browse information about education quality across Pennsylvania. To refine his app, Nile learned about how data is collected from schools, how to build interactive features without slowing down the app, and how to include graphs without visually overwhelming the user. “It was a good opportunity to reflect on the entire certificate, from the basics of how to use R to some of the statistical stuff to the heavy concerns about web app development,” he says.

During the course of the certificate, Nile became involved with the Philadelphia branch of a nonprofit called LaunchCode—a coding boot camp with a diverse cohort that includes recent college graduates, career changers, single parents, and new Americans seeking a career in tech—and found himself considering a career pivot, too. “I started thinking more seriously that tech is an area where I’d like to build a career,” he recalls. “In tech, it’s hard to hit a plateau, because you always have to learn the next framework or the next programming language or the next approach. So I’m learning, and I am constantly discovering how much I have to learn.”

In Tech Impact’s Data Innovation Lab, Nile draws on his previous experience with web development and storytelling as well as his certificate training in understanding and interpreting data. Nile works in front-end development and data visualization, collaborating with a team of engineers and data scientists. Their mission is to partner with nonprofits and public institutions to help them develop strategies to collect, use, and manage relevant data. Although new to his role, Nile already supplies knowledge and experience with visualizing data with R on projects such as interactive reports. “It’s validating that anyone would consider me an expert in anything,” he laughs. “And the work is genuinely important, and I really appreciate being able to take some of the skills I got from the certificate program around how to best visualize data and make an impact.”