Data In Action Mentor (Summer 2025)

Data In Action Mentor (remote, part-time, paying $35-40/hr)
This is a part-time remote position (20 hours/week) from July 1 to Aug 8, 2025

Do you remember that person who made you realize your true potential?

The one who championed you while you traversed the path towards academic or professional success.

Your mentor. Maybe you had one, or even several, if you were very lucky!

SureStart is looking for undergraduate mentors with experience in Data Science, and a passion for community empowerment, to help in our Data in Action summer program! It will also help you develop your leadership skills and experience --- all while getting paid for your efforts.

This summer we will be hosting a 6-week virtual data in action training program, running from June 30th through August 8th! This program will bring together students from across the US to help them develop skills related to AI, applied machine learning, data science, app development and entrepreneurship through a virtual program led by undergrad and grad-student mentors. 

This year, MIT Futuremakers is introducing a new track to offer high school students the opportunity to learn how to use data science for community empowerment. The data in action track is designed to equip students with data science skills to confront power inequalities and address issues that matter to you and your community. Moreover, students will collaborate with community organizations on projects requiring data analysis. Both students and community partners will play integral roles in every aspect of the research project, from conducting background research on specific instances of inequality to identifying relevant datasets and implementing data analysis techniques. 

Your role as a Data In Action mentor will be crucial in this Create-a-thon!

Your responsibilities will be to:

• Train, support and encourage a small group of students as they develop data science and participatory action research skills using the program curriculum.
• Help them use those skills to build a final data science-based project to complete the program.
• Day-to-day you will interact with your group of trainees through regular meetings.
• Keep your group accountable for finishing their prior day's tasks.
• Help unblock them when they are stuck by pointing them to resources, showing them how to debug code and/or giving them helpful hints to discover the answer on their own.

The curricula for the program will be provided and you will be trained in how to mentor effectively. You will be supported in your work by the program manager and a head mentor.

Requirements for applicants

• Applicants must be recent graduates or currently enrolled as an undergraduate, Masters or PhD student in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Data Science/Analytics, or similar fields.
• Passionate about teaching and mentoring younger students; especially invested in mentoring underserved students in science and technology.
• Passionate about community empowerment
• Applicants must be proficient in programming; Python required.
• Some familiarity with Participatory Action Research preferable, but not required.
• Willing and able to commit up to 20 hours per week for 8 weeks. The first two weeks will consist of mentor training, followed by six weeks of mentoring high school students.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Must be available to
  • Participate in required paid mentor training (30-35 hours) in June (exact dates TBD)
  • Mentoring Across Differences training from 5:00-6:30PM on June 9-11th. (paid time)

Benefits

• You will deepen your technical skills (look up 'protege effect')
• Work on exciting, challenging and incredibly rewarding work critical to the future of ethical data activism
• Build up your CV with real-world leadership and management experience - years ahead of your classmates!
• Get trained in mentorship and professional skills, including communication, self-branding, entrepreneurship, equitable leadership, and more
• Attend technical skills talks by industry professionals
• Learn about Participatory Action Research as a framework for community-driven data collection and action
• Be an integral part of an impactful movement towards opportunity, equity and representation
• Valuable networking opportunities with industry leaders within enterprise, tech and academia

It is a win-win for you and your trainees. So if you are interested, apply today!

If you're excited about being a mentor but are hesitating about the requirements, go ahead and apply anyway - we'd love to hear from you!

Diverse minds building diverse technology is SureStart's mission. We would love to see a wide variety of candidates presenting their unique perspectives, experiences, and skills. We are an equal opportunity employer and highly value diversity. SureStart does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Keywords for this job: machine learning, computer vision, affective computing, training, mentorship, MOOC, online training, data science jobs, internships, interns, co-ops, speech recognition, tts, speech synthesis, image processing, HCI, human computer interaction, Python, data scientist.