By: Bonniejean Zitske, Associate Director, SSTAR Lab
Hello! Welcome to a new blog series featuring interviews with the talented people at SSTAR Lab. Each month, I’ll interview someone different, learning what drew them to the world of higher education and what keeps them engaged and motivated. This month, I interviewed Jared Colston, our new Data Enterprise Manager, current PhD candidate, and Stata expert. I hope you enjoy the conversation—thanks for reading!
Jared & Camel, Wadi Rum Jordan
Bonniejean Zitske: Describe your postsecondary education and how is it different than you imagined it would be?
Jared Colston: From the time I was twelve, I wanted to be a high school teacher. I planned on teaching history, so I double majored in History education and English. When I started student teaching, I realized I didn’t really like it. I didn’t love the classroom management aspect and realized I’m not cut out for teaching high school. I shifted from an interest in K-12 to higher education and decided to get a master’s degree in Higher Ed Administration. I thought I would go to Law School and work as a legal scholar in higher education, focusing on Title IX issues, but I found my way to the Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA) PhD program at UW-Madison instead. At that point I had no real background in data. Dr. Nick Hillman, my advisor, suggested dipping my toes into Excel and my interest took off from there. I eventually took several statistics courses and two independent study courses focused on Tableau and Stata. I suddenly and unexpectedly found myself a “data person.”
BZ: Without getting too personal, how has cost shaped the path of your education experience?
JC: In two main ways. The first shows up in my initial goal of wanting to be a teacher. I’m not a first gen student—my mom was a teacher, and my dad used his GI Bill to attend college. There was an understanding growing up that I, too, would attend college. However, I was terrified of debt and wanted to make good financial decisions. I was very risk adverse and chose teaching because I’d be guaranteed a job; the ROI was there. The second way it shows up is the schoolt I chose to attend for undergrad. I attended the University of Louisville because it was a good economic decision. They offered me a sound financial package and I didn’t have to take out any loans. In retrospect, I might have benefited from going to a bigger school, further away from home, but I would have had to take out loans, and I wasn’t willing to do that.
BZ: What drew you to a career in higher education?
JC: My mom taught special education for 25 years and so I’d always valued teaching and been interested in education. I pivoted to higher education in college because as a senior I started noticing some of the weird sociological systems in place. I wanted to explore those more, so I wrote my senior thesis, which looking back was a terrible paper, titled, “The economics of prolonged adolescence.” I explored whether meal plans and luxury dorms were prolonging the adolescence of middle class Americans. Someday maybe I’ll revisit the paper and consider how my thoughts have changed in the last decade or so.
BZ: Do you think data is cool? And if so, why?
JC: I don’t know if it’s cool, but I do enjoy it! I guess it’s cool if you’re into that. I really enjoy data from a number of different angles and have come to really enjoy statistics, computer programming, etc. It’s fascinating. It’s a puzzle to solve, which is fun. At the elemental level, we are quantifying the world around us, which data helps with, but there are ethical and moral questions that come from that which I find interesting and important.
BZ: Is there a higher education issue that you are eager to solve using data?
JC: I’m really excited about my current dissertation project. In higher education we are approaching a legitimacy crisis, justifying why higher ed is a legitimate investment for society. How do we get to the point where society understands the value of investing in things that don’t necessarily have economic returns, but something that is considered a public good? How do we move higher education into the realm of public good?
BZ: Is there a higher education issue that you don’t think data can solve?
JC: This might be a little controversial, but I don’t think earnings disparities along gender and race lines will be solved solely by data or increasing education. These disparities have been persistent, and they are rooted in patriarchy and white supremacy. These are political and moral questions that won’t be addressed by technocratic solutions in higher education systems. They will only be solved by big societal challenges to sexism and racism.
BZ: What is your favorite tool that you use to do your job?
JC: Stata because I’m pretty good at it. It feels comfortable and familiar.
BZ: And what is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
JC: This is the most hard-hitting question [long pause and deep breath] I have to go with peanut butter. I also love a milkshake over ice cream. So, a peanut butter milkshake is the top of my list. Once I made myself a coffee peanut butter milkshake and it was absolutely incredible.
Stay tuned for more interviews with the talented people at SSTAR Lab. And subscribe to our newsletter for a monthly update on our research and partnerships!