My Data Journey 1 - PAWA Initiative's Experience

Data Analysis? I envisioned it difficult, I thought I wouldn't be able to understand it, I always shrugged off the idea of starting a data analytics career but here I am! ?? If there's anything I learnt from this experience, it would be to never give in to any fear or doubt.

The Beginning…

I know it's weird but I honestly don't recall how or when I applied for the internship because I applied for so many programs that period. ?? l just know that I was happy to receive a call one afternoon from a lady with a nice calm voice asking if I would be available for the duration of the bootcamp. ???

I got selected into PAWA Initiative's Data Analysis Bootcamp Series 1.0 led by Christiana Onoja (R.Engr, MNSE) and assisted by Jemima Aiye-Atukpor . PAWA which stands for Partnership for Africa Women Advancement is an initiative set to empower women and girls in #stem (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) through #business and #technology enablement.

True to their word, they got formidable and skilled ladies ( Freda Victor , Adelola Adebo , Toyin Olape and Bukola Akinsola ) to be our tutors and they also doubled as our mentors during the training. These ladies assisted, guided and encouraged us, while sharing their wealth of expertise, making the program an impactful one. They also painstakingly answered all of our many questions with so much clarity and calmness ?? for this and many other help they rendered us, I'm grateful. ????

The Bootcamp…

I was so excited to get started, why not, ?? when that was my first #beginner #friendly #dataanalysis bootcamp. ???? The #bootcamp made me realize how easy and fun data analysis can be and it also gave me the opportunity to meet with other 23 amazing ladies across Africa (Nigeria, Botswana, Ghana and Kenya) who were my co-mentees in the program ?? Some of them are Esther Akintade Regina Deri , Faith Ginika , Sewuese Bertha Agbendeh , Nana-Aisha Abimbola , Chinonso Mbama , Temitope Oluwadare , Faith chepkirui , Ibiwunmi Afolabi (MEEM) , Nyawira Kigathi , Penina Murithi , Kuma Ugbaa Sewuese Mary ,DPA, BA,MPA,NIM,IPMA, PMD Pro , Oreoluwa Elusakin , Waliyat Badmus , Alexandra Dwight .

The program lasted for 8 weeks and during that time we were taught and certified in the following areas: #introduction to #data #analysis, #excel for #dataanalysis, introduction to #datastorage and #cloudcomputing, introduction to #sql and #datavisualization using #powerbi. After each week's training, we were always given a task to work on, the task is submitted on or before a given deadline. These projects helped us in practicing what we learnt. Here are links to the tasks I did during the internship:

Data Cleaning using Microsoft Excel - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yZtCMXkJ9nbiG6B-XdruHbxig4ttNg04/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=113479852259209399884&rtpof=true&sd=true

Data Storage and Cloud Computing using #azuresql #database - https://docs.google.com/document/d/11Lg0WEHLG-8A1ULhnJqRbBL6-jC9VHDR/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=113479852259209399884&rtpof=true&sd=true

Using SQL to Retrieve Data - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nGrxYLkdKg7RADUEZvItsi9ABoRWdSkg/view?usp=share_link

Data Visualization using Power BI Visualization - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sllu1Dldfv7vHeZz002c0dV6H9fBZd0L/view?usp=share_link

In the course of the bootcamp, I was selected as one of the PAWA Data Leader for having participated actively and engaged in all activities during the bootcamp. This was spotlighted on all PAWA Initiative's social media handles, you can check it here:

LinkedIn - https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/partnership-for-africa-women-advancement_pawadataleader-dataanalysis-cohort1-activity-6989258582693216257-zANM?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj-20gtNIRC/?igshid=MDM4ZDc5MmU=

Twitter - https://twitter.com/pawainitiative/status/1583493509364842498?t=m2UD2KIkGfOaDGfBt4O2hQ&s=19

The Bye-bye…?

I wished it didn't have to end but it did.?? For our final project, we were given 3 different topics (#titanic , #adventure #works, #netflix) to pick one, I selected the Netflix project. We were tasked to #download the #netflix dataset from Kaggle ,?#prepare the data, #clean and #analyze it to uncover #useful #insights visualized in a #presentable format. It was at this time of the bootcamp, that federal universities resumed their academic activities in Nigeria. This became a burden on me as it was clearly difficult to keep up with the fast-paced classes and upcoming exams in school, while doing my final project in the bootcamp. ?? But by the grace of God, I completed my project and submitted it within the timeframe. This is a tabular distribution of the cleaned dataset.

This is a visual representation of the data.

For the presentation, we were grouped into 3 teams according to our choice project. Below are my amazing teammates (anticipate an article on our findings ??) in the Netflix project ( Esther Akintade Regina Deri , Faith Ginika , Sewuese Bertha Agbendeh and Glory Uchechukwu Amadife ). Working with these ladies was fun and stress-free, I cherish every minute spent with them.

Also, as a PAWA Data Leader, I made an appreciation video for PAWA Initiative. ???? Here's the link to the video -. https://youtu.be/VBetl-S_C5c

Our #graduation #ceremony which was held on the 12th November 2022, was our last day in the Bootcamp, it was fun. I felt proud of myself for having successfully completed the training. Here's a highlight of the event - https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/partnership-for-africa-women-advancement_pawa-data-analysis-series-10-graduation-activity-7000878209709842434-AYNf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android

The training has ended but the relationships that were formed during the program didn't end, the impact given and received is never going to fade and last of all, the memories will always be there. ???? I want to sincerely thank the management of Partnership for Africa Women Advancement for lending me their shoulders to climb on. Now I'm here, I'm going to do my best to keep moving forward and becoming better.

Thanks for reading this far,?? I hope you enjoyed every bit of it. If yes, please do leave a comment for me. If no, please let me know how to improve on the comment section. Thanks again.

God bless #pawainitiative

God bless Nigeria

God bless Africa! ????