Q&A: Sonya Kuki MIA ’14

Sonya Kuki MIA ’14 studied International Security Policy and East Asian Studies while enrolled at SIPA. Then, she learned how to code.

Kuki spent last summer bent over her laptop in an intensive certification course in coding and data analysis. The Lede Program, a collaboration between the Journalism School and Department of Computer Science, is designed to give professionals across fields the same investigative tools that cutting-edge data journalists now use to mine and communicate information.

From intelligence collection to conflict prevention, from global health to city management, a new generation of policy makers are moving to the forefront of that analytic work. As data, code and algorithms transform industry, reshape lives, and reset parameters for responsible citizenship, public sector leaders are learning to access, analyze and act on huge new volumes of data, changing the way policy decisions are made.

Here, Kuki shares a few thoughts on her experience, and on what other SIPA alumni can gain from enrolling in the program. Find more info here or write to [email protected]. Applications for summer 2015 are due February 15.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Why did you apply to the Lede Program?

Computers and data have become so pervasive in our lives, I felt like I needed a comprehensive background. Working at different places, meeting young professionals [who were] younger than me, I found them to often be a lot more comfortable with tech in a way that my peers and I weren’t. Not just, “I’m really good at PowerPoint”—everybody is. What matters is being able to do real stuff, some kind of scripting, or to have some grasp of what that means.

I myself don’t plan to be a data scientist. But it’s an incredibly important, complimentary skillset to have and understand, so if and when I work with someone who is a data scientist, or work with information that’s based on data science, I’ll have a foundation. A lot of people are resistant to science and technology; a lot of people say “I can’t do that!” But I don’t want to become that. I want to be able to roll with it.

How do these tools apply to public policy?

Data technology has taken on not just a support role in policy planning, but an essential role. It’s not just something that helps; it’s something that everything else is often grounded on. It will have a larger role in decision-making processes.

SIPA wants policy students to have this greater awareness, and a more diverse background in things like data sciences. If you want to study the role of technology and how that affects conflict, you can easily select a set of courses on cybersecurity, on war and technology. [Students can also study digital activism or the role of open data and mobile technology in economic development.] There are tremendous opportunities that SIPA recognizes and is starting to develop.

These data tools aren’t about having policy questions and then finding data to answer those questions; they’re about being able to navigate oceans of data and then draw questions from there. Whether it’s sentiment analysis based on Twitter data, where you can see what huge groups of demonstrators are saying; or looking at drone strikes, like we did in class: You may know generally what happened, but when you see it broken down in numbers, it’s harder to refute.

IR [international relations] is a social science; it’s hard to put into numbers. But these techniques help in a way that policy analysis itself can’t. Big data adds a component that makes findings a little more exacting or digestible. People can frame arguments a certain way, or read articles a certain way; but numbers are universally understood. They have a wider impact.

How did the material differ from SIPA coursework?

In IR, you’re looking at the big picture. You’re looking at different dynamics. You’re always questioning yourself—which is not bad—and you’re looking at different things from different lenses. You’re encouraged to ask: “What were the many things that caused this to happen? How could that be seen from a different perspective?” With policy, there’s always a grey area; it feels more fluid.

It’s not in like math or computer science, where one plus two always equals three. “Do this thing this way, apply that rule, it will always come out that way.” Here, you’re asked to examine things using an entirely different creative energy. The thought process you have to apply when learning to code, learning scripting, learning to process data, is entirely different from anything I’d been trained to do. It just made me think in a way I’d never had to think before. But it was good; it was worth it. Technology is always evolving; if you don’t keep up with it, it’s not going to wait for you.

For more info on The Lede Program, see bit.ly/cjslede or contact [email protected]. Applications for summer 2015 are due by Feb. 15.