One University of Georgia postgraduate fellow turned his love of America’s pastime into skills that helped him succeed in an internship at the UGA Carl Vinson Institute of Government.
Burke Lyle, a recent graduate of the UGA Destination Dawgs Fellowship program, is a huge baseball fan and counts the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves as his favorite teams. He earned his certification in Microsoft Excel last fall because he enjoys analyzing the sport’s complex statistics.
“A casual fan might know batting averages, home runs and RBIs (runs batted in), but there are even more advanced statistics that, unless you’re a deep baseball fan, you might not understand,” he said.
Lyle’s data skills and attention to detail made him a natural fit for an internship with the UGA Institute of Government’s data analysis and visualization team. The team works with state agencies, universities, school systems, local governments, development authorities and other government organizations on specialized data analytics and visualization services to improve decision-making processes.
“I know another student who had worked at the Institute of Government,” he said. “I thought it would be an interesting place to work because of my background and because I like working with spreadsheets.”
Data scientist Ethan Christmas served as Lyle’s mentor.
“One of the things I noticed immediately is that Burke has a keen understanding of business analytics. He knows which visualizations are most effective in communicating to leadership and decision-makers,” Christmas said.
Throughout the semester, Lyle learned how to use Microsoft Power BI, a data visualization software, and built an interactive dashboard to organize Georgia Department of Education school enrollment data. Christmas said Lyle made valuable contributions to the team.
“We have really wanted to visualize and drill down into this data. The dashboard Burke has been building for us is really and truly our first step and a giant leap toward our goal,” Christmas said.
UGA Institute of Government data scientist Ethan Christmas, left, and Destination
Dawg post graduate fellow Burke Lyle share a laugh.
Not only did Lyle create the much-needed dashboard, he also helped Christmas hone his mentoring skills.
“We usually teach Power BI basics in one- or two-day sessions. Working with Burke one-on-one on more advanced concepts has helped me learn and grow,” Christmas said.
Destination Dawgs is a two-year, inclusive post-secondary education (IPSE) program for UGA students with an intellectual or developmental disability. Participating students attend college courses and build professional networks that prepare them for competitive employment and independent lives. They are fully immersed within UGA, gaining skills in and outside the classroom.
Students earn a certificate of college and career readiness from the UGA Center for Continuing Education upon graduation. Lyle is the first Destination Dawg to also earn an undergraduate certificate, completing a certificate in sports media at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Outside the classroom, Lyle learned the ins and outs of radio at WUOG 90.5 FM, UGA’s student-run station, first as a show producer and later as a sports show host.
“UGA is very good at sports media, and I was really interested in taking media classes and being on the radio. It was definitely one of my favorite things I did,” he said.
The postgraduate program is intended for students who want to take on leadership roles in the program. In addition to their higher-level courses and work-based learning, fellows take classes through the Institute for Leadership Advancement in the Terry College of Business.
As a fellow, Lyle mentored other students and spoke at events. Before his time at the Institute of Government, he worked at the UGA Special Collections Libraries, where he created a database to organize a massive VHS tape collection.
“I went through over 5,000 VHS tapes and moved on to audiocassette tapes,” he said.
Lyle said his internships and experiences at UGA have helped shape his career plans. He accepted a position as an office assistant in the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences Office of Development and Alumni Relations this summer.
“Building relationships and learning Power BI at the Institute of Government has been cool,” Lyle said. “My dream job would be in baseball broadcasting. It’s a very hard job to get, so I’ve taken the Excel path. I could potentially be working with spreadsheets in the future.”