I am a final year PhD candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill investigating the sex-specific effects of wood smoke exposure on lung health and macrophage function. I had the wonderful privilege of receiving an SOT Supplemental Training for Education Program (STEP) Award.
During my fourth year, I discovered that I enjoyed using R programming to study large ’omics datasets. This experience inspired me to pursue a career as a data analyst for the toxicological sciences. Although I am excited about my new career direction, there were gaps in my computational skillset, and I needed more experience evaluating big data. To prepare myself as a competitive job candidate, I used my STEP funds to register for online courses that provided additional training in R and greater knowledge of advanced statistics and modeling.
I registered for the Harvard EdX Professional Certificate in Data Analysis for Life Sciences certificate program. The courses in this program provided hands-on training in R that began with basic statistical concepts and progressed into more advanced topics like statistical inference and machine learning. This program emphasized applying concepts to real data and provided months’ worth of exercises utilizing genomics datasets to answer different biological questions. I also completed the “IBM: Analyzing Data with Python” course, where I learned the basics of maneuvering data using Python, a common programming language used in bioinformatics. Although these courses were challenging, I gained practical programming experience, developed more confidence in my abilities, and learned more about statistics and high-throughput analysis than I would have on my own.
I am very grateful to the STEP Award selection group for giving me this opportunity to advance my skillset toward a career as a data analyst.
The next deadline for the STEP Award is September 15, with a second deadline April 15, 2025. Through this award, SOT supports the preparation of graduate students for entry into the workforce by providing funds for training in areas that graduate students determine are necessary for them to achieve their career goals but outside the immediate scope of their graduate training and research program.
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