Adelaide University Internship Experience - Tanvi Srivastava
Welcome Tanvi!
Tanvi Srivastava joined our SAcommunity Data Analytics Team for her University of Adelaide SET (Sciences, Engineering and Technology) Internship for her final year Bachelor of Computer Science 2024: 22 March 2024 - 7 June 2024.
She is completing a 140 hour internship onsite with SAcommunity at the Connecting Up Office, Infoxchange for 2 days (15 hours) a week for ~12 weeks around her classes.
Total Hours 72 Joined 22 March 2024 Last Check-in 26 April 2024
Personal Biography
Tanvi is a final year Bachelor of Computer Science student at the University of Adelaide and is enthusiastic about the fields of data science and cybersecurity. She balances her academic commitments with part-time work in retail at Woolworths and tutoring Year 11 and 12 high school students in Chemistry and English. Her affection for literature, has led her to host a monthly book club where she explores a range of different authors with the other club members.
Tanvi is interning at Connecting Up to further develop her technical skills in Google Analytics and Power BI. She aims to showcase some of the skills and knowledge she has gained throughout university, particularly Python, while in the SAcommunity program to apply her learning to contribute to the community sector. In addition, she aims to cultivate
further professional connections and networks within the wider Infoxchange group as well as with other partner organisations in order to build a network for the future.
In the future, Tanvi aims to work in the cyber security field within the government sector. She is particularly interested in areas such as threat intelligence and cyber defence as these areas of cybersecurity focus on being proactive rather than reactive and involve the constant use problem-solving and innovation.
Community Services in Councils Project
Tanvi has selected Southern Mallee District Council for her Power BI council reports, a databse of approximately 60 community services operating in the area for the financial years 2020-2021, 2021-2022, and 2022-2023. Her reports followed previous data provided by Stathis Avramis, and her completed reports can be found here.
The process of creating community service information data presentations involves several steps. Data trends are summarized by utilizing information from Google Analytics and SAcommunity. Subsequently, Power BI and Canva reports are generated, which may reveal data anomalies and the need for corrections. The database is then updated with improved information, and the reports are recreated. The final data reports are published on the website and introduced by Tanvi to council stakeholders for their information and feedback.
Additionally, Tanvi created a dashboard summarizing the community service information for the Southern Mallee District Council over the preceding three years (shown above). This comprehensive dashboard allows for comparison and analysis of the data over the previous three years.
Work experience - Internal/External Connections & Networks - Meetings, Training and Events
Volunteers and interns are encouraged to attend monthly SAcommunity Team meetings, Connecting Up staff meetings, as well as quarterly all-staff Infoxchange Town Hall meetings to understand more about the organisation as a whole.
Organisation-wide news, events and projects are communicated through the staff channels, with weekly CEO Updates from David Spriggs. Informal 'Lunch and Learn' educational sessions, and network meetings create connections with staff. Whilst peer-to-peer training or capacity building and telephone techniques training allow for networking with other volunteers.
Interns are also given opportunities to attend stakeholder and partner events as they arise.
Relevant meetings and training sessions Tanvi has attended include:
Image: Telephone Techniques Training Intern Sylvia Cao with Tanvi Srivastava
Telephone Techniques
Telephone techniques training is undertaken by all interns and volunteers as having skilled telephone techniques and telephone etiquette is important for all SAcommunity Team members. Telephone techniques assist Data Analytics Team members in understanding more about the directory and data collection methods, data cleaning and updating their individual dataset information, and presenting data reports to council stakeholders.
Interns are provided with the SAcommunity telephone script as a guide that aids interns in demonstrating professionalism, ensuring appropriate conduct on the phone, and creating positive impressions. Several telephone techniques training sessions are held throughout an intern's time at Connecting Up to facilitate practice and further develop their skills.
Image: Rasika Nawarathne, Tanvi Srivastava and Power BI challenges
Connecting Up Monthly Staff Meetings
CU Meeting 9 April 2024
Updates from the Connecting Up Team includes monthly highlights, plans, activities. Heard from diferent teams including the marketing team, tech team, customer service team and volunteers.
Updates from the Connecting Up Team includes monthly highlights, plans, activities. Heard from diferent teams including the marketing team, tech team, customer service team and volunteers.
IX Lunch & Learn Sessions
Lunch and Learn: World Autism Month - 5 April 2024
Key Speaker Jim Mullan - CEO of Amaze
An informative talk that detailed the company Amaze, the aim of World Autism Month, and inclusivity in the workplace. Amaze is known for building autism understanding in the community, influencing policy change for Autistic people and their families / supporters, and providing independent, credible information and resources to individuals, families, professionals, government, and the wider community.
Participants learned about the challenges faced by autistic individuals in terms of employment difficulties and societal misconceptions. Jim Mullan discussed the evolution of societal understanding of autism, moving away from outdated stereotypes to recognizing the unique abilities and needs of autistic people. Jim provided insights into the initiatives aimed at improving inclusivity and support for the autistic community. This includes the development of programs that assist autistic individuals with faster and more affordable access to diagnosis and support services.
Furthermore, the session highlighted the importance of creating employment opportunities for autistic individuals and the benefits of workplace diversity and inclusion.
Lunch and Learn: Surplus for Purpose - 16 April 2024
Key Speaker Tomer Ginel - CEO of Infoxchange
This talk focused on financial sustainability within the NFP sector. The session detailed the financial challenges faced by the NFP sector including increasing demand for services and the shrinking funding sources. Not-for-profits are pressured to generate their own revenue which goes against the traditional model of a NFP in which generating a surplus is not the main purpose. The concept of "Surplus for Purpose" suggests that surplus funds are not to be seen as profit but rather resources reinvested into fulfilling an organization's social objectives.
The issue of financial health of not-for-profits was also highlighted. Only a small percentage of NFPs are actually considered financially stable. This highlights the importance of financial management and the potential need for organizations like Infoxchange to focus on building their reserves to ensure sustainability.
The session further explored the concept of a social enterprise, which reinvests its surplus back into its mission rather than distributing it as profit. This model was presented as a viable strategy for NFPs to maintain financial health and continue delivering their services effectively.
Image: IX Lunch & Learn: World Autism Month with Key Speaker: Jim Mullan, CEO at Amaze
