Yun Wang

I joined Purdue University as a PhD student in January 2002, that’s when I first got involved with STATCOM. At that time, STATCOM was still in its early stage, we only got a few (less than 10, I guess) members, and very few organizations knew what STATCOM is. The first project I worked on was to revise the survey for a rehab facility to improve the response rate. As a first year PhD student at that time, I was very excited to be a member of STATCOM and apply statistical skills outside the classroom. Although I was inactive in STATCOM for a while after first a few projects, I rejoined STATCOM as an associate director in 2004 and a director in 2005.

One challenge we faced was to increase the publicity of STATCOM and find more clients. We tried all kinds of ways to advertise STATCOM to non-profit organizations in Greater Lafayette community, such as contacted local volunteer bureau, posted ad on an organization internal newspaper, gave presentation in volunteer organization annual meetings, submit abstract to statistical conferences. Besides, we encourage past clients to recommend us to other potential clients as well. Through all these efforts, STATCOM received more and more attention.

Another challenge was to encourage the involvement of more and more graduate students. We started to have members give application-oriented presentation during our bi-weekly meeting. Through these presentations, we exchanged our experience gained in STATSCOM projects or other data analyses, which increase our problem solving ability to a more or less extent.

I achieved many useful skills through involvement with STATCOM, such as teamwork, leadership, oral and written communication, organizing and supervising several teams simultaneously, finding and communicating with new clients, advising a new volunteering organization to different groups. I would highly recommend every graduate student in statistics be a part of STATCOM in some way. I am a research assistant professor at University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) Biostatistics Facility, and my daily job responsibility is to provide statistical support for all kinds of cancer-related researches. My experience with STATCOM gave me confidence in applying statistics for solving practical problems, and helped greatly in preparing me for my current job. My successful experience with STATCOM encourages my volunteering in UPCI protocol review committee. If time available, I would like to see the possibility of starting STATCOM at University of Pittsburgh in the future.

Starting a new volunteer organization involves lots of challenges. How to get enough clients for all enthusiastic members? How to find enough volunteers, especially a team leader, for a new project? What kind of support we can get from our department? What should we do if a project is too complicated for us? My experience is that perseverance and boldness are very important. It never hurts to advertise STATCOM whenever possible. Don’t be easily discouraged when you get no response after the first calling for volunteers. Take every chance to encourage members and help them gain confidence in their problem-solving ability. Exchange experience among members as much as possible.