This week is Graduate Student Appreciation week. Meet Chase, whose work with CSSI has helped him grow skills needed for his future career while helping faculty solve research challenges. 

Chase LaSpisa, PhD student of political science in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is one of six CSSI graduate student employees who uses his experience with specific statistical software and data analysis to help faculty advance their research. He supports social science research through one-on-one consultations on data analysis, data management, and survey design, and leads workshops on research methods as part of CSSI’s workshop series.

He is also participating in CSSI’s Dissertation Completion Program, along with three other participants, to finish his doctoral research on how offshore oil and natural gas reserves influence interactions between countries. This residency program provides selected graduate students with dedicated time, space, and support to complete their dissertations. 

We asked LaSpisa how CSSI is helping to build his research skills through these experiences.

What kinds of things have you worked on with faculty during one-on-one consultations?

I have consulted with faculty on projects ranging from data collection and management to data analysis and data visualization. One of my first consultations involved collecting early twentieth century Iowa census data and generating a series of descriptive statistics at the city and county levels. A more recent consultation involved working with scholars in public health to develop an appropriate modeling strategy for a small-n survey and then conducting the data analysis and visualization. 

What have you gained from this experience? 

Working as a graduate student consultant has truly been a great learning experience for multiple reasons. First, my time at CSSI has allowed me to develop practical experience with methods and skills that I learned in courses but do not actively utilize in my own research.

In addition, consulting has let me polish my skills in communicating methods to audiences with little to no experience in data and statistics. My consulting experiences have been vital in branding myself as a scholar and in my job search.

Tell me about your work leading CSSI workshops. 

I have led multiple workshops since I started as a graduate student consultant. I have led Introduction to Stata workshops as well as Data Visualization Using Stata workshops in the past. Leading workshops on Stata, in particular, reminds me of what drew me to social science research in the first place: exploring the world through data. 

How is CSSI helping you complete your PhD dissertation? 

The CSSI’s Dissertation Completion Program (DCP) is a great external accountability mechanism that also provides access to an amazing community of social science scholars. The DCP has been invaluable not only for keeping me on track to defend my dissertation but also providing an outlet for the inevitable frustrations of completing a doctoral degree. 

Being able to talk to Ethan Rogers and the other DCP graduate student participants has been essential to my progress over the past few months. The regular meetings and the office in CSSI have also given me dedicated space, time, and accountability to more efficiently work on my dissertation.