Why I became a School of Data Fellow - Lyse Ladouceur

I am a student in Computer Sciences and Technology at Ecole Supérieure d’Infotronique d'Haïti (ESIH). I have learned about School of Data through my school via an email. I asked myself a little about the name. It seemed weird to me to be capabable of educating data. So my curiosity was stung. While browsing the research I did on this international school, I was immediately interested in their work. As a student in such a field I am rather aware of the importance of data. I had just completed a course in Road Evaluation Data Management, Post Matthew (1) and UNOPS Associated Mapping (2). After the data internship I could see how their use in the field of work was often crucial.

With the fellowship I loved the idea of training other people in data literacy. Through this activity, I saw the opportunity to create a community to communicate my passion for data literacy. From a computer scientist point of view , it is easier to understand that data shapes the future and are drivers of change. However people in other fields do not always see it like that and are often reluctant to share the data. The fellowship with the data School of Data was an opportunity to get a few peoples’ attention and lead them to think differently.

We are two to be recruited in 2017 for the fellowship, Pascale (3) and I. Our mission was to create communities and educate them about data literacy. I was in charge of the Civic tech and work closely with Pascale's Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). At the end of the fellowship we had to develop a tool that allowed the sharing of data between the CSOs to facilitate their internal work.

I am pleased to participate in such an initiative because I know that data literacy is so important that everyone should be well versed in it.


Par Ladouceur Lyse
(1) Hurricane that hit the southern of the Republic of Haiti in October 2016
(2) The United Nations Office for Project Services en Haiti
(3) Pascale Elie is also a fellow recruited in 2017 in Haiti