Adult Education Data Intern @ IRC
Internship Overview
- Position: Adult Education Data Intern
- Organization: International Rescue Committee, Spring 2025
- Location: IRC Elizabeth Office, NJ
- Supervisor: Vera Liang (vera.liang@rescue.org)
- Focus: Attendance data management, Power BI dashboards, system integration
- Skills: Power BI, Excel, Power Query, ETO, Client Track
Objectives
At IRC’s Adult Education Department, I supported data operations that enabled better learning for immigrants and refugees. I cleaned messy datasets, built dashboards to visualize student progress, and contributed to a mission-driven, multicultural team.
My internship focused on three core areas:
- Attendance data management and quality control
- Power BI dashboard design and reporting
- Cross-team collaboration for data processes and communication
🌍 About IRC & The Adult Education Program
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a global humanitarian organization that supports refugees and vulnerable populations through education, health, and resettlement services.
The Adult Education Department offers English Language Training (ELT) for immigrants and refugees. Each learner's progress—including class attendance, assessment results, and advancement—is tracked for continuous curriculum improvement.
Volunteers and data interns like me helped ensure each student’s learning journey is well-documented and accurately reflected in reports.
✅ My Key Contributions
1. Attendance Data Management & Batch Upload
- Created structured Excel-based attendance trackers used for batch uploading into ETO (Efforts to Outcome)
- Applied formulas to calculate attendance rate, track absences, and check consistency across cohorts
- Used Power Query to clean, normalize, and transform spreadsheets for upload
- Resolved issues like missing entries, formatting inconsistencies, and mismatches with Client Track system
- Collaborated with team leads to validate data before upload
2. 📈 Power BI Dashboard Development
I built interactive dashboards that visualizes key metrics for the Adult Education Department from FY2022 to FY2025. Below are some examples:
- Biodata: gender, origin, age, educational background
- Attendance trends: rates, absences, class completion
- Literacy progress: ESL level transitions, course difficulty comparisons
Key Features:
- Dynamic filters and slicers for custom views
- Multi-semester comparisons
- Designed for non-technical users in the department
3. 🤝 Additional Responsibilities & Teamwork
- Participated in weekly team meetings and shared updates on batch upload progress
- Clarified logic with non-technical staff (e.g., formula breakdowns, Power BI usage)
- Helped refine internal workflows for smoother data handoff between teams
✨ Reflection
This internship gave me hands-on experience with real operational data in a mission-driven setting. I became more comfortable using Power Query and Excel for large datasets, and I grew more confident communicating with cross-functional teams.
What started as a data-cleaning job became an opportunity to use data as a lens to understand people’s stories—and help tell those stories more clearly.