Mindy Hsiao

What is your current professional role?

I am an education research associate at SRI International in Menlo Park, California. I work on program evaluations by collecting and analyzing data and writing reports. Previously, I was a client service associate at Public Consulting Group in SeaTac, Washington. I also worked with districts to implement a system to help document and track special education records. 

Can you tell us about your MEP internship experience?

I interned at Treehouse and worked on a project that looked into the impacts of student mobility, in particularly, at how foster students' high rates of mobility affected their school outcomes. I did qualitative analysis by interviewing key stakeholders as well as staff at Treehouse and used descriptive statistics to analyze student graduation rates in relation to their mobility rates. 

What did you gain from the program that you have found helpful since graduating?

The internship helped me find a career that I enjoy. Prior to MEP, I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do with education policy. My project at Treehouse helped me realize that I liked collecting and analyzing qualitative data. This helped me narrow down job opportunities when I was job hunting. I'm now at a job that I love and allows me to use skills I learned in the MEP program.