Adelaide University Internships - Julia Koh
Welcome Julia!
Julia Koh joined the SAcommunity Data Analytics Team at Connecting Up for her Adelaide University ECMS (Engineering Computer Sciences, Mathematics and Sciences) Internship for Mathematical Sciences on the 25 July for Semester 2, 2022 - 28 September 2022.
Julia completed a 150 hour internship onsite in SAcommunity at the Connecting Up Office, a part of Infoxchange for 15 hours a week for 10 weeks over 3 days around her university classes: (4 hours, 7.5 hrs 2.5 hrs onsite and 1 hour remotely each week).
After completing her internship and graduating, we were pleased to welcome back Julia, as she returned to join us as a volunteer for ~4 hours a week starting on 13 February 2024, between her casual work as a mathematics tutor, whilst she searched for work in the data analytics field.
Always impressed by Julia's strong work ethic, and professionalism, we employed Julia in a full-time paid role on the 16 May 2024 as a Customer Support Officer at Connecting Up. Julia transitioned into the role of Customer Support Officer replacing former volunteer Samantha Whillas who was promoted to Customer Engagement Manager on 3 June 2024 with parent organisation Infoxchange.
Well done Julia!
Internship: 150 hours Volunteering: 49 hours
Total Hours 199 This Year 45 Joined 25 July 2022 Last check-in 14 May 2024
Personal Biography
Julia Koh has a Bachelor of Mathematical Sciences from the University of Adelaide graduating in 2023. An intern with SAcommunity as a second-year student in 2022 (above), she returned to volunteer with the team in 2024 between casually working as a mathematics tutor and searching for work opportunities, as she enjoys learning about how maths can be applied in real-life situations.
Julia's aims in volunteering and interning with the Data Analytics Team were to further investigate this field whilst continuing her study. She has volunteered across various organisations from assisting with teaching dance classes for children to helping with the community lunch at the WestCare Centre, and is keen to continue serving the community through her experience at Infoxchange. She also wishes to use her mathematical knowledge and skills in more practical applications and aims to develop her professional skills around the workplace.
Julia's move into the workforce was with Connecting Up, in Customer Service where there are opportunities that she can still utilise her interest relating to applied maths, statistics or data analysis, and focus on the practical uses of mathematics. Particularly as mathematics plays a crucial role in business process improvement by providing the tools and techniques needed to analyze data, identify patterns, and optimize processes.
Council Statistics Project
Julia has been working in the Data Analytics Team with training assistance from volunteer Stathis Avramis on the Council Statistics project for the District Council of Tumby Bay, creating reports utilising Google Analytics, Power BI and Canva. These reports present the 109 community services listed on the directory as operating within the council area and provide an indication of service demand to assist with council decision-making, awareness or research.
Like all data analytics exercises, analytics reports are only as good as the data the reports are created from, and Julia has spent many hours sourcing, re-checking and cleaning the data for her council, improving the SAcommunity database and service listings. She has also revised multiple other council reports and datasets to subsequently improve the information generated from these.
To accomplish this, Julia checked her council dataset on the database, against Google Analytics statistics, and the assigned indexing categories and groups while utilising Power BI. She identified any records with anomalies and worked across the Customer Service Team by searching for and calling organisations in her council dataset by phone to confirm their details in order to update these individual outliers within the dataset, to improve the accuracy and reliability of her reports, whilst practicing her customer service skills and telephone techniques.
Julia has also contributed to side projects, assisting the Media & Communications Team with images for our upcoming events calendars i.e. September 2022 and in providing article ideas for our whole team, for example ideas for an upcoming story discussion on helpful tips for students in Adelaide, alongside fellow intern, team-member and ping-pong partner Millicent Jesslyn Danli.
Council partner consultation and engagement is also important, and Julia has undertaken telephone and email training, to not only contact local community services for data updates, but councils she created reports for by phone and email including Tumby Bay, Light Regional, Elliston, and Holdfast Bay The idea is to create awareness of these report resources and build partnerships by introducing and presenting the community service information and service-demand reports to relevant members of local government in roles such as community development, tourism and events, volunteer or public library staff.
These introductions again assist assist councils with awareness, networking, community consultation and grant provision, and to inform decision-making. Julia's analytics reports were also promoted across SAcommunity social media and she utilised Canva to create a visual summary for Instagram, for the District of Tumby Bay FY 2019-2020; Tumby Bay FY 2020-2021 and Tumby Bay FY 2021-2022.
Julia Koh editing her training and educational video with Camtasia for the Data Analytics Team
Finally, Julia has contributed to the Volunteer Capacity Building Team by documenting one of the data cleaning processes 'How to update Councils and Electorates for SAcommunity records' utilising TechSmith's Camtasia software suite for creating and recording video tutorials. The training and educational video presentation she developed from Volunteer Stathis Avramis documentation, will inform future interns and volunteers on organising and checking records in the datasets ahead of creating reports for council, and lays the foundation for future reports on the basis of services operating within state and federal electorates.
Interns Julia Koh and JD with Volunteer Stathis Avramis in the Data Analytics Team, Julia contacted councils to provide them with her reports and community service organisations operating in her dataset to confirm their details and information, improving the dataset and subsequent reports
Work Experience
Julia has also attended monthly SAcommunity Team meetings on 3 August 2022, and 7 September 2022. She sat in on an online staff meeting with Xavier Goldie, Senior Data Analyst on 9 August 2022 and participated in the monthly Connecting Up All Staff meetings on the 9 August 2022. She also attended relevant fortnightly Infoxchange (IX) Lunch & Learn initiatives begining on 30 August 2022 as part of experiencing a professional office environment, these meetings include all staff from Infoxchange offices in Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane. Students were also immersed in the other staff activities available including opportunities for joining in weekly online reiki or meditation sessions, Yammar all-staff news and updates from the CEO, David Spriggs to understand the organisation as a whole.
Lunch and Learn
IX Lunch and Learn sessions from the People and Culture Team focus on topics spanning from presentation skills, effective communication, and psychological wellbeing from external presenters. Subjects such as 'Building a Brand & Compelling Narrative in PowerPoint (30/8)' and 'Hacking Powerpoint like a Pro (27/9)' hosted by Breanna Osborn from Capgemini, and 'Emotional Intelligence at Work (15/9)' presented by Sophi Bruce from the School of Life, to provide staff and students with insights and advice for their work-life.
JD, Julia Koh and Ziqi Xu in the Data Team discuss the Mapping function on Power BI
Training and Development
Julia has had the opportunity to understand more about data analytics in the not-for-profit sector, and was provided with access to the Connecting Up Digital Learning platform, a training and development online learning platform with a selection of relevant live webinars and recorded webinars, workshops and webcons from a range of subject-matter experts who also have a deep experience with not-for-profits.
Relevant webinars, workshops and webcons have included:
Excel for databases - tips and tricks
How to organise people and data to build a thriving community
Data readiness
Getting Started with Google Analytics
Decisions with data
Generating Insights from Google Analytics
Gain a clear understanding of your organisation's data and impact using Power BI
Data, reporting, business intelligence and outcomes to enhance services
Preventing a Data Disaster
Generative AI for NFPs
Augmented Intelligence: Combining Organisation Data with Large Language Models
Tools to Get Control of Your Data: The Benevolent Society & Microsoft talk about Fabric
Thiya Reddy, Infoxchange Project Manager and Senior Business Analyst
Mentor Meeting
Julia also met her self-chosen mentor Thiya Reddy, Infoxchange Project Manager and Senior Business Analyst on the 10 August 2022. Mentor meetings with a selected staff member from Infoxchange provide a one-off opportunity for mentees to gain professional development advice and guidance, to discuss education and career possibilities as well as gather insights into pathways and connections.
Julia wrote about her experience below:
"Today I met with Thiya Reddy and we talked about her role in Infoxchange as a Project Manager and Business Analyst. Thank you for helping me organise this meeting as I had a great time speaking with her. We covered her journey from university into the working world, and she gave me several pointers on navigating that journey."
Here are my five take-aways:
• Find something motivating and purposeful to work on, but give yourself time for other things as well.
• Take opportunities given to you, but also create your own opportunities where you are.
• Try to have a positive attitude and finish strong.
• Find the middle ground for things you like and dislike, and your strengths and weaknesses.
• Be curious! Listen to what others are saying and put yourself in their shoes.
When presenting, remember that people are trying to understand you as much as you are trying to explain things to them."
Fellow Interns Taylor Alland (Media & Communications), JD (Data Analytics Intern) and Julia Koh (Data Analytics Intern) at Taylor's farewell next to our Connecting Up vision wall.
"As a second-year student studying a Bachelor of Mathematical Sciences, my internship with SAcommunity at Infoxchange, has been eye-opening and a great learning experience for me. I really enjoyed learning about PowerBI, Google Analytics and creating reports with data. It was especially satisfying to see the reports at the end! I also enjoyed connecting with others, learning about office culture and developing my professional skills about the workplace. I am looking forward to finishing my degree at the end of 2023, and transitioning into the workforce using the skills I have learnt through my experience here at SAcommunity." ~ Julia Koh, 2022
Julia Koh working to update organisation details on the SAcommunity website as she volunteers.
"After graduating from The University of Adelaide with a Bachelor of Mathematical Sciences, I decided to come back as a volunteer with SAcommunity at Infoxchange. Continuing on from my internship, I worked with the Data Analytics Team to provide reports for district councils around South Australia including Tumby Bay, Light Regional and Elliston. I am excited to continue working on and improving council reports and plan to look for work in the data analytics industry while volunteering with Infoxchange."~Julia Koh, 2024
Return to Welcome New Volunteers and Interns Semester 2, 2022
