A Deep Dive Into Data
By: Katherine Han, WHARTON ’24
Katherine analyzing various data points at her desk setup.
Keru – Shanghai, China
From interviewing the founder of a social enterprise to working with students on an online consulting project, my internship has helped me explore many aspects of Keru’s business. One project, in particular, allowed me to analyze survey data and discover new insights into the customer experience.
Keru is a social impact consulting firm that offers a wide variety of service-learning projects. These programs give students the opportunity to travel to a rural community in China, or learn online, and work with an organization to address a local challenge.
To continually improve their programs, Keru has been collecting feedback from students. One of my projects this summer is to optimize survey performance and analyze responses. The end goal is to conceptualize changes Keru can make to increase customer satisfaction. Initially, I thought I was going to be looking at numbers all day, partaking in a repetitive and monotonous task. However, the more I look into the data, the more interested and engaged I get. This project has given me an inside look into the authentic reactions students have to Keru. I’ve been able to derive stories from the data, piece together the student experience, and identify major challenges faced in the programs.
I started by receiving a full rundown of current projects and survey expectations from my supervisor. Together we identified answers we wanted to get out of the survey, such as where students heard about the program, the most enjoyable aspects of the program, the least enjoyable aspects of the program, and the quality of the teachers. With this in mind, I edited the old survey Keru was using. The objective of these edits was to ensure more detailed, accurate responses could be received.
Immediately after, new responses started rolling in. To date, we’ve had over 100 students complete the survey with many more to come. Excel sheets have been abundant and numbers have been plentiful. This past week, I’ve been downloading the raw data, cleaning it, and putting together summary documents that contain high-level takeaways and recommendations for improvement. These documents are being sent to Keru staff so they can learn from past programs and improve ongoing, and future ones.
It’s been really rewarding not only learning how to derive insights from data but also immediately making an impact on Keru’s staff and customers. A month before, I would’ve never thought that data could provide so much insight into the lives of others. But these past few weeks have taught me that numbers can unlock a whole new understanding.
The Global Research and Internship Program (GRIP) provides outstanding undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to intern or conduct research abroad for 8 to 12 weeks over the summer. Participants gain career-enhancing experience and global exposure that is essential in a global workforce.