Breaking the Code with Sakina Kanji

Hafsah: Breaking the Code with Gabriella tells the story of a young girl who overcomes gender stereotypes in robotics, cementing herself as a role model for young women. The book includes science and engineering information, such as the design process and Java tutorials. As part of our initiative to empower young girls to pursue their interests in STEM, we are running the Breaking the Code with Gabriella: Trailblazers in STEM Speaker Series, which explores the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, and math. The series aims to dispel gender stereotypes and aid young students in getting advice on how to pursue their own passions.

 

Hafsah: Today, I’m here with Sakina Kanji, who is a UChicago student studying data science. She’s involved with the data team for the Two and Through project to increase high school graduation rates in Chicago. She’s passionate about using data for social good. In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing and reading fiction. Now, I’ll let Sakina tell us a little bit more about herself: anything about your journey in STEM, your future goals, and your current interests that you think are notable?

 

Sakina: Sure. I just finished up my freshman year at UChicago. I’ll be a sophomore in the fall. As Hafsah said, I’m studying data science. I think it’s really cool to be able to apply math in the real world in so many different domains. I’m not 100% sure what domain I’d like to apply data science in the future. But that’s what I’m currently exploring right now. 

 

Hafsah: Very cool. Can you tell us why you chose to study data science and a little bit more about your vision of using data for social good? 

 

Sakina: Sure. So, coming into college, I knew I wanted to study something quantitative-based. And data science really attracted me because they're solving so many problems in so many different domains. Whether it's in public health or education or even in finance, they're using numbers to solve those problems. And so that's why I was really interested in it. UChicago has a pretty cool data science program where you can take a lot of different classes and learn a lot of different tools that they're using in the industry. So that's kind of what attracted me to the major. In terms of using data for social good, I think there's just a lot you can do. There are a lot of nonprofits where they can take a look at the numbers a little bit better.

 

Hafsah: Tell us what it's like to study a STEM subject at UChicago.

 

Sakina: I think it's really cool. There are a lot of people who are interested in STEM at UChicago, so there's a really supportive environment. Whether it's in class, in office hours, or even people like meeting up outside of those two things to meet up and work on their projects, it's a really supportive environment. I was a little surprised about that, but I know I love it.

 

Hafsah: Is it pretty competitive in the STEM fields there?

 

Sakina: A lot of people have very ambitious goals. Whether it's to work in like big tech companies or go to grad school. So although people are really driven, there's a very supportive and collaborative environment.

 

Hafsah: Can you tell us why you chose UChicago as your college to pursue data science?

 

Sakina: I wasn't 100% sure what I wanted to major in coming into college, but one thing that really attracted me to Chicago was the ability to kind of explore my first couple of years. Knowing that I had that opportunity allowed me to take classes that wouldn't have necessarily locked me into a specific major. And so by being able to explore, I landed on data science. 

 

Hafsah: Throughout your journey, have you faced any challenges as a woman in a male-dominated field? And if so, how have you overcome them?

 

Sakina: Yeah, I think in any STEM field there's going to be a majority of men. And I think it's common for women to feel a little bit pressured or even feel like that they don't necessarily have a voice. I personally experienced that in one of my classes this year. It felt like my ideas weren't taken very seriously. And I think it's a really common experience. I think the only way [out of that] is to be able to stand up for yourself and show that your ideas do matter. And I think that's a tough thing. It's it's an easy thing to say but it's a tough thing to put into practice. I definitely think if you know there are other girls around, you guys can come together and make your ideas heard, I think that's kind of the best thing I would offer. Again, it's really easy to just say these things, but to actually like go out there and like stand up for yourself, I think it's a little bit hard to do in practice, but you just kind of got to take that with confidence.

 

Hafsah: Yeah, having confidence and making friends, right? Then, if there is any piece of career-related advice you could give to your middle school self, what would it be?

 

Sakina: Career-related advice? I think the biggest thing you can do in middle school, then in high school, if you're interested in a STEM career is to take as many math and science classes as possible. I think having a really solid foundation in math and science coming into college will give you a leg up because you can start off in higher-level classes that are going to be a bit more industry-specific rather than taking more general classes in college. So then you end up having more time in college to kind of perfect that skill set before going out to get a job or going to grad school and stuff. So that would be my biggest advice.

 

Hafsah: And then building off the previous question, what advice would you give to young girls who are looking to get involved with data science?

 

Sakina: That's a really good question. I think a big part of data science is kind of the scientific method, which is having a question and then going out and trying to find that answer in a formulaic method. Having a hypothesis or what you think is happening, and then going out and trying to find the numbers to see whether your hypothesis is right or not. I think you're doing that on a day-to-day basis. But specifically, if you want to take that to the next level, there's a lot of data online which you can download. You can visualize it in graphs to answer questions. That would be like one really easy thing to do. There's so much data online that you look at; any kind of data you're interested in, whether it's like sports data, plant data, COVID-19 data, there's really anything. So get online and find what you're looking for.

 

Hafash: Thank you so much, it's been great talking to you. 

 

Sakina: Yeah, thank you.