9/28 class essay: I’d like to get to know you better. What is your general background—in a few sentences, what do you want me to know about you? What are your interests academically, intellectually, or professionally? Basically, what do you care about (no wrong answers here)? What do you think data science is? Based on your conception of data science, in a very broad sense, how (if at all) do you think it can be harnessed to improve the lives of people (their quality of life), the environment, our understanding of ourselves or nature, business & economics, everyday problem solving, or anything else?

My name is Anne Marie, and I’m a freshman. I am from St. Louis, MO and have lived there my entire life. I have two siblings, an older sister and younger brother, and I also have a dog named Tucker. I plan on majoring in kinesiology and am interested in the pre-med, pre-PA, or pre-PT track. I am on the gymnastics team at William & Mary and enjoy being active. I like doing any and all kinds of puzzles, hanging out with friends, and watching sports. I love ice cream and one of my favorite shows on Netflix is Grey’s Anatomy.

Data science is a process that allows us to analyze problems around the world. It involves gathering data and information from different places and populations to get a better understanding of what is actually happening. Then the data can be analyzed and steps can be created to try to fix or even just learn about the problems. Data science can be utilized to learn about different problems or statistics that involve people’s everyday lives. It can gather data about different locations, ethnicities, populations, etc. The data could show how something might have worked in one area and not another, and this can be helpful if we figure out why it did or did not work and then apply it to our lives. Analyzing this data and coming up with a solution or applying it can improve people’s quality of life. The same goes for the environment, economics, and our understanding of ourselves or nature. Being able to gather this data and explore it allows people to understand more about our world and potentially be able to come up with ideas for how to better it. Data science provides us with information to learn about the world we live in and try to create solutions to improve it.