Community Fellows Blog Posts

As a business student at the Leavey School of Business, my holistic education has helped me build my understanding of the business world we live in today. The courses I’ve taken in MIS have helped me understand the intersection of business and technology and the value it provides businesses in effective decision making. Through my fellowship with the District 3 team at Santa Clara County, I’ve learned how I can transfer skills I learn in my MIS classes to government and public policy, an industry I wasn’t initially sure how I could contribute as a business student. However, as an MIS student I found opportunities to automate routine tasks so that team members focus on important policy work. One such instance was for a project I was assigned to at the end of last quarter: conducting progress check-ins for the URJGENT Grant funding program. Through this program businesses and nonprofits submit applications for one of three tiers, depending on factors such as size and funds, to request for yearly funding from SCC (Santa Clara County). Team members schedule times to meet with each organization POCs to evaluate their progress in completing their objectives stated in their application. 

In order to schedule and conduct the check-in calls in an efficient manner, I researched ways to make the scheduling process easier for both members of the SCC District 3 Team and the organization POC and came across Microsoft Bookings. Through this platform, each POC could book a time that works best for them given a schedule of times that each member is available, and automatically adds to the team calendar. With the implementation of this platform, I was able to help reduce back and forth emails to schedule the calls. Using the project management skills I learned from my Systems Analysis and Design class, I found a more efficient way to complete the yearly task in a more efficient way. Applying these skills was exciting as I got to learn first hand how to implement and integrate a new application to support and optimize county processes. 

This quarter, I had the opportunity to further apply my MIS skills to analyze metrics from the previous year’s MailChimp email campaigns. Using excel and data analysis skills I’ve begun collecting, cleaning, and analyzing campaign data to understand how email metrics have changed over the years, what metrics can be improved on and what tactics are working. As I continue this project, I’m learning how I can use my analytical and business skills to contribute to the county and how useful these skills can be impactful in many industries, not just the tech industry.