Olivia Tubaro - Out of my Comfort Zone

As a first-year MNA AmeriCorps VISTA with Detroit College Access Network (DCAN), I’ve had to explore things out of my comfort zone and develop skills I never thought I’d gain.

For one, I’ve had to learn the value of numbers and data. As a former English and Spanish undergrad student, this was a tough sell for me! 

In my role with DCAN, a large portion of my work revolves around data collection and calculating growth and change through numbers. For the last few months I have captured weekly updates in FAFSA completion for each school in the city of Detroit. Another major project of mine has been data collection for various metrics for all Detroit schools. Most agencies that produce state or federal data designate by district, not city -- and there are multiple districts within Detroit -- so DCAN has to collect their own aggregate data for the city (combined totals of all schools in Detroit). My citywide data sets cover six academic years and pull information on more than 30 different variables (like number of graduating seniors, percentage of students enrolled in two-year and four-year colleges, etc.) for all of the 50+ schools in Detroit. In short, that’s a lot of numbers!

All of the numbers that I pull and calculate helps inform DCAN’s work. The data tells us where there are deficits and where we can make improvements. 

I’m fortunate to have a wonderful supervisor who walked me through how to find data and where to record it. We have great systems in place to automatically calculate percentages and numbers needed to reach goals, and the visualization of our FAFSA spreadsheet makes it easy to understand. The DCAN team has supported me in my data collection work by providing one-on-one and group training about the importance of data and how best to work in programs like Excel and Google Sheets. I never thought I’d say that I know how to create formulas to calculate aggregate data. Five months ago I wouldn’t have even known what that meant! It’s been a wonderful surprise to learn that I enjoy working with numbers. 

Other projects I’ve worked on at DCAN involve social media content creation and implementing month-long campaigns, like our Scholarship of the Day in November. I also work on developing new resources to share with our community, like college readiness checklists, college success guides, and reading lists. 

It’s been a wonderful few months with DCAN, learning and growing both professionally and personally, and I look forward to new projects and opportunities in the remainder of my service year. 

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