NCSSM interns help The Paper staff unlock voter, subscriber insights
Gina Byon and Azza Safa (left foreground) on air with Big Dawg’s Bob Clark.
Editor’s Note: The Paper was lucky to have two students from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics spend part of their summer in our newsroom. The budding data scientists — Gina Byon and Azza Safa — combed through U.S. census, voter, and The Paper subscriber databases. Their work supports two important purposes: helping our reporters better understand voter patterns and trends, and guide how The Paper can better connect with potential subscribers.
“I stopped liking math when they brought in letters,” chuckled Bob Clark, the morning DJ on Big Dawg, trying to lighten the mood before our debut interview at WMNC-FM.
At the radio station’s studio on North Green Street, we were documenting our experience as students at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) working with The Paper. From meeting the precious Bo, The Paper’s beloved mascot, to having weekly lunch visits at the Madness, and gaining invaluable technical skills working with The Paper, our experience this summer has been nothing but terrific.
Azza: Unlike most students at this Summer Research and Innovation Program (SRIP) hosted by NCSSM, I am an NCSSM-online student rather than from the Morganton campus.
Thus, my home school remains in my hometown, Fuquay Varina, and I was able to attend SRIP with students at the Morganton campus for a quick five weeks. Being an online student lets me experience the best of both worlds: Friday nights under the stadium lights with my high school friends and Saturdays immersed in NCSSM’s online weekend programs at the NCSSM campus.
Additionally, opportunities such as SRIP are also presented to online students and play a key role in building up my skill sets and resume, just in time for college applications and beyond.
Gina: I am a residential student at the NCSSM-Morganton campus. I like to tell people that I leave home to go home. I leave my home in Greensboro to go home to Morganton. Attending a boarding school has been a unique and exhilarating experience. You learn independence through the little things like doing your own laundry and cleaning your room, but more importantly, you build lifelong bonds by sharing those experiences with others. You gain a second family. While I’ve been able to participate in so many exciting experiences, such as cultural festivals and community excursions, my time with The Paper this summer has proven to be one of my favorite experiences to date.
After spending the school year inside the walls of NCSSM, the best part of summer has been discovering life beyond campus. I have taken so much joy in learning about the different restaurants and Friday night activities while working with The Paper, and I will most definitely be convincing my friends to come downtown to grab a coffee at Thornwell or to come see the beautiful blue building we all know as The Paper.
Azza: As mentioned, my cohort of the Data Science Mentorship (one of the many SRIPs) was mentored by The Paper. We worked closely, slicing and dicing various datasets from the census data, voter registration data, and the subscriber dataset of The Paper. While the census data appeared ordinary at first, Burke County’s older-than-average population provides a strategic edge for The Paper to purposefully build its clientele.
Then we moved on to work with the colossal Burke County Voter registration dataset with over 60,000 rows. It helped us dive deeper into understanding the average profile of a resident, and with our best friend, Python, we coded multiple scripts that would help us clean these large datasets.
Most importantly, sharing the newsroom as we worked on this data provided real insights into the buzzing conversations and brainstorming that go behind every headline, which was so refreshing to hear!
Gina: If you are reading this, there is a good chance you are a subscriber to The Paper, and if you are not, you most definitely should be.
As part of our project, we were given access to some important information about subscribers, specifically about their subscriptions (we promise we are interested in expiration dates, not your shoe size.)
The data we received required a lot of cleaning and organizing. The process was a lot like us deciding what to eat for lunch each Thursday; too many options but doable in the end.
Thanks to this effort, we created organized databases for The Paper to manage their print and digital subscriptions efficiently. We also cross-analyzed subscriber data with voter registration data to build a profile of the average subscriber, helping The Paper identify potential new subscribers in the area.
We will definitely miss the laughter, conversations, and even the occasional bark that echoed through the newsroom during our visits.
This experience has truly been once in a lifetime, and we wouldn’t trade it for a thing. While our time at The Paper has come to an end, we hope current and new subscribers will keep our newfound family at The Paper busy for the foreseeable future.
We are so incredibly grateful to all the staff at The Paper, but most importantly to Mr. VanNoppen and Mrs. Copeland for all their guidance and support, and NCSSM for giving us this opportunity.
Gina Byon and Azza Saffa are students at North Carolina Schools of Science and Mathematics and participated in the school’s Data Science Mentorship Program this summer.
