Program Description
The Texas A&M Institute of Data Science (TAMIDS) solicits applications to its Data Science Ambassador Scholarship Program from Texas A&M PhD students who wish to serve as representatives for TAMIDS and champions for Data Science literacy in their departments. The competitive program will provide ambassadors with leadership, technical and training skills which they will practice through engagement in their home departments. Ambassadors will also act as a point of contact for TAMIDS in their departments. Scholarship applicants must have completed at least 1 year of a Texas A&M PhD program at the time of application. The Data Science Ambassador Scholarship Program aims to help ambassadors become agents for change who will catalyze the adoption of Data Science, both at Texas A&M, and in their subsequent careers.
The elements of the ambassador program are:
- Training: Ambassadors will complete TAMIDS Data Science technical training materials and practice their delivery in a group setting with the TAMIDS mentors.
- Engagements: Ambassadors will plan, develop, and deliver engagements for Data Science literacy in their departments (see the full program description for examples), under the mentorship of the TAMIDS organizers.
- Outreach: Ambassadors are highly encouraged to collaborate with TAMIDS Assistant Director for Educational Programs in outreach activities; online, on campus, and in the surrounding community, including students and teachers from K-12 grades.
- Group Meetings: Ambassadors will participate in monthly group meetings with the TAMIDS mentors, with supplemental meetings as needed.
- Faculty Mentors: In their application, each Ambassador will identify a faculty mentor in their department with whom they will consult on design and implementation of their proposed engagements. The faculty mentors will also provide a brief assessment of the operation of the engagements to the TAMIDS mentors at the end of Fall and Spring semesters.
- TAMIDS Representation: Ambassadors will learn about TAMIDS capabilities for training and research support and refer departmental members to these as needed.
- Expected Time Commitment: Ambassadors’ total activities in the program should average about 5 hours per week.
- Scholarship Award: each ambassador will receive a scholarship award of $2,000 for the 2023-2024 academic year, payable in two $1,000 installments, in August 2023 and January 2024. This award qualifies ambassadors for the Non-resident Tuition Waiver for Competitive Scholarship Recipients.
Further Details: Applications for the 2023–2024 cohort of ambassadors closed on April 3, 2023. New ambassador applications will be available in Spring 2024 for the 2024–2025 cohort. More information will be available soon. .
Sponsorship: The Data Science Ambassador Scholarship Program is supported in part by external sponsorship. We gratefully acknowledge continued support of Chevron for this and other student education, research and engagement programs.
For more information, please reach out to Drew Casey at drew.casey@tamu.edu
