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My name is Calvin Kim, and I am a homeschooling senior in Northport, Alabama. This summer, I had the pleasure of working with Alabama Capital Network (ACN) through the competitive Alabama Data Scholars internship program. The program was made possible by QuantHub with support from Innovate Alabama and partnering employers statewide.
ACN is an organization that connects investors with entrepreneurs. Their partners include angel investors, nonprofits, universities, and many more. Their vision is to create a vibrant startup community, which is the future of economic development in Alabama.
My task was to move their data from one Salesforce database to another Salesforce database. ACN recently became a nonprofit organization, which is why a switch of the databases was needed. All the data that needed to be moved had been manually entered over the years, and there were some duplicate entries. Additionally, some of the data had extra information that was not necessary. This task was very important to ACN as it ensured the protection of their data and prevented any leakage.
The data I migrated was a combination of startup, angel investor, and corporate member data. ACN uses this data to keep track of the different aspects of their business, from meetings logged with potential investors to information on past fundraisers from startups such as QuantHub. By switching databases, ACN was able to save $2,500 a year!
Through this internship, I improved in many areas and learned many new things:
- First, I improved my communication skills. I practiced being in constant contact with my mentors and had to report on what I worked on in my hours.
- Second, I learned how data is being used in organizations like ACN. It was cool to learn what the data is used for and how it helps them toward their vision.
- Third, I practiced effective time management. In addition to this internship this summer, I also had an online summer school and other extracurricular activities. I had to make sure to finish all my work for ACN, while also devoting time to my schoolwork and tennis practices.
- Fourth, I learned the basics of many fields through the QuantHub assignments, including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, Python coding, and others. It was very interesting to learn about all these fields, and it sparked my curiosity to learn more. In fact, I plan on taking a Python course at the University of Alabama this upcoming school year.
- Lastly, I learned many things about myself through this internship. I realized that I enjoy using a computer to solve problems, such as how to effectively clean and organize a large set of data. Additionally, I learned that I enjoy working remotely. I realized that with more flexibility, I can organize my day more efficiently to accomplish different tasks.
I want to thank both ACN and Quanthub for this wonderful opportunity. Specifically at ACN, I want to thank Ms. Hunter Custard and Mr. Benzamin Choi for being great mentors. They were both very encouraging and supportive of me, and I had a lot of fun working with them. I also want to thank QuantHub for arranging this opportunity. QuantHub staff was very accessible and constantly checked on how I was doing with my internship. I hope that many other students like me will be able to receive this type of opportunity!
