My Volunteer Experience - Ho Khanh Vy Vo (Vy)
Welcome Vy!
Ho Khanh Vy Vo joined our SAcommunity Data Analytics Team as a volunteer while she studies her Master of Business Information Systems at Torrens University, beginning with the team this year on the 14 August 2024.
She attends for 4 hours a week onsite at the Connecting Up office, Infoxchange around her classes and part-time work.
Total Hours 57.5 Joined 14 August 2024 Last Check-in 10 December 2024
Connecting Up Office: Intern Lancy Lanxi Zhang, Intern Holly Hongjie Xiang with Volunteer Ho Khanh Vy Vo
Personal Biography
Vy is a recent Graduate majoring in Business Information Systems at Torrens University, Adelaide. Following her First Class Honours in International Business Management from the University of Nottingham, Malaysia. It is here Vy discovered her interest in business analysis and data interpretation from a class held in Marketing Analytics, which inspired her to become a Data or Business Analyst.
During her Masters, Vy studied Python and SQL, apart from using various software such as Power BI, Jira, Figma, Confluence and Microsoft Access. She also undertook Advanced Google Analytics, and Accenture Data Analytics Virtual Experience Program with Forage. In March this year she also began volunteering one day each week in administration at the Australian Red Cross around her studies and work in hospitality.
Vy is volunteering at Connecting Up with the desire to give back to the community and expand her network, simultaneously gaining more real-world experience and further delving into data analytics and visualization.
In the future, Vy wishes to contribute to the non-profit sector as a data analyst or a business analyst because of the alignment between the vision of non-profit organizations and her ethical and professional practices.
Overview of Data Analytics Project: Neil Anubhav Dattagupta explained a data analytics project to Volunteer Vy, Intern Eily, Intern Ivy, Intern Mihir, Volunteer Lam, Intern Lily, Intern Todd, Intern Shoaib, and Volunteer Keegan
Community Services in Councils Project
Vy has selected the Flinders Ranges for her Power BI council reports, a dataset of approximately 22 community services operating in the area for the financial years 2021-2022, 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. Her reports followed previous visualisation report work by Volunteer Hang Zhang and Volunteer Julia Koh, and her completed reports can be found >>here.
There are a number of steps involved once community service information data presentations are created, a summary of data trends prepared, work is attributed and published to the website, and then will be introduced by Vy to council stakeholders by phone and email to be used as a tool to understand community needs in their area.
Discussing about using Python code in Data Extraction and Data Cleansing with Volunteer Stathis Avramis
Work Experience - Internal and External Events, Information, Connections and Networks
Volunteers and interns are encouraged to attend monthly SAcommunity and Connecting Up Team meetings, as well as quarterly all-staff Infoxchange Town Hall meetings to understand more about the organisation as a whole. In addition to reading about projects and news through the staff-wide communication channels Yammer and the weekly CEO Update from David Spriggs, and participating in Lunch and Learn educational sessions, and network meetings to connect with staff and other volunteers.
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 Vy has attended include:
Vy with Volunteer Lucia practicing Telephone Techniques scenarios
Training and Development - Telephone Techniques
Telephone techniques follow on with email and communication techniques, to assist Data Analytics Team members with understanding more about the directory and data collection methods, in data cleaning and updating their individual dataset information, and, in finally introducing and presenting their data reports to council stakeholders. There are several telephone techniques meetings, as with the student's elevator pitches, practice makes perfect.
Health & Wellbeing Webinar - Foods to Boost your Mood - 20 August 2024
Elaine Fox hosting the "Foods to Boost Your Mood" session highlighted the significant influence of food choices have on our emotional health. In order to improve mood and promote brain well-being, the speaker recommended to embrace a varied diet of fruits, vegetables, and Omega-3 fats.
In addition, the temptation of processed foods was highlighted. While these foods provide short-term satisfaction, they often lead to detrimental effects and overconsumption habits, which eventually harm our health in the long run. Many useful advices were given to encourage participants to include more healthy foods in our daily meals. This would boost both our mental and physical health in addition to boosting our mood.
Connecting Up Monthly Staff Meetings
08 October 2024
The meeting was led by Pankaj Chhalotre, the Head of Connecting Up. It was exciting hearing about significant increase in the number of interns and volunteers joining Infoxchange during this year. Along with that, staffs, interns and volunteers at SA Community were eager to benefit from free membership of LinkedIn Learning, where there are several online courses taught by industry experts in technology, business, and creative fields for enhancing skills and career development.
Throughout the meeting, heads of different departments highlighted some updates and emphasised the importance of alignment and synergy across the organisation through daily business operations and close collaboration within and across departments.
Overall, this meeting provided valuable insights into Infoxchange's operational dynamics and strategic vision. Most of departments achieved high performance, which set a positive tone for the organisation's future endeavors.
12 November 2024
Attending the Connecting Up Monthly Staff, Intern & Volunteer Meeting was an enlightening experience that offered a holistic view of the organisation's operational landscape. Infoxchange gave a huge thank you for the enormous contribution of 65 current volunteers with approximately 9,789.59 hours.
One notable aspect of the meeting was from the Data Analytics team regardings prominent achievements from many volunteers such as getting job offers, publishing an article accepted by ALTA 2024, etc. The team also received many postive feedback and engagement from councils, namely Mount Gambier and Gawler Council.
