On May 16, 2025, the Lawrence University Data Science Club will return with their most notable event, the Datathon. Eight teams will be working for a $1,000 prize and mock interview opportunities with big companies. This year, this event is steered by Data Science Club’s president, sophomore Natalia Aklilu, and vice president, sophomore Giang Pham.
Aklilu notes that last year as a general board member, she felt encouraged to become more involved by the 2023-24 club president Nafis Munim ‘24 and vice president Cassie Lee ‘24. She particularly enjoyed the club because it made an effort to teach more people about data science and created a community to meet a need not filled by the data science minor offered at Lawrence. She references alumni and previous general board member senior Nina Austria as sweet and welcoming, who was more than willing to help her with her minor.
Pham recounts that it was during her first year when she was struck by the welcoming community who helped her learn how to code for the first time. From there, she became more engaged in their events and was advised to apply for the board. Pham recognized that since the club is fairly new, last year they collectively strived to create harmony and establish their campus presence.
Both Aklilu and Pham agree that when they first got into their positions it helped that they first respected one another before they began working together.
Aklilu observes that Pham is very organized, community-oriented, and creative, which always makes the flow of events easier and super fun.
Pham took notice that Aklilu is hardworking and very supportive. Pham attributes their great work relationship to their similar work styles. Outside of the club, Pham says, Aklilu is her good friend, and the two ensure that their work does not interfere with their personal relationship.
On the 2025 Datathon, Pham states, “The Datathon is a beginner-friendly competition, where everyone, no matter if they have coding experience or not, [comes] together to answer challenging questions about issues happening in the world through data.”
Aklilu clarified that while they answer challenging questions, participants’ projects don’t necessarily have to be academic and can explore their interests through data. Whether or not you participate, Aklilu continued, you learn a lot about different fields because of the various majors and minors involved.
In 2024, Aklilu participated in the Datathon with juniors Sophie Kelley and Mina Mandegar. Their team was rewarded with the second-place position. Aklilu mentions that it was a smooth and fun experience where she got to work with her friends and classmates. She says, “It was fun to see how we could explore outside of our assigned topic for class through [the] Datathon. We learned a lot more about collaborating.”
Aklilu’s group did their project on analyzing three African countries to show diversity with undernourishment, gross domestic product (GDP) and political stability. Their project aimed to dissuade people from believing generalizations about Africa.
So far this year, in a leadership position, Aklilu says that they’re really trying to emphasize that anyone can join.
She is excited to encourage people to start using data. Aklilu remarked that especially for people who would not normally be using data, when everyone starts creating visualizations to analyze their fields of interest, you learn a lot and become excited about what you can discover. Pham says it has been nice to help guide Datathon participants this year to overcome the stereotype that only people in science can participate in the Datathon.
What’s exciting about this year is that the Datathon will be hosted in the new Fox Commons building. Aklilu emphasizes that this space is going to bring a new level of professionalism to the event. Something else that is new, Pham says, is that this year they are helping participants match with potential teammates with similar interests to break barriers to participation.
Overall, Aklilu expressed that data is important to her because it provides so many insights that you can’t definitively get without looking at the raw data. She asserts that it’s a digestible way to learn that is reliable. To Pham, data is important because it is relevant to many things. For example, Pham is a psychology major and finds they are producing a lot of data. Pham believes that all majors, even those in the humanities, will end up working with data and it is an important skill to have. Pham notices that integrating data makes professional decision-making much easier if you learn how to work with it.
You can catch the Datathon on Friday, May 16, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Fox Commons Business Center!