We created this newsletter to keep our alums, partners, and anyone interested in learning skills for the future of work updated and connected to our ever-growing family. If you want to read our previous issues, you can check them out here.

Ciao! 😉 This is Meg speaking, and you’re reading one of my first letters for Eskwelabs! I’m taking the butterflies in my stomach as a good sign because I know this learner relationship we’re growing is an abundant and reliable one 🦋 If you have any suggestions on what I should write or you’d want to respond to this issue, you can leave a comment on this post or reach us through our social media pages!

As introduced in our theme reveal, November is about Guidance🔦 and how we can always rely on our community whenever it gets a bit overwhelming. What a fitting theme for November! This month is downtime for me (and for others who don’t celebrate Thanksgiving). It is the peanut butter spread in a sandwich of the festive months of October and December. It is the break in between quarters in a basketball game. It is the interlude before an artist sings the verse that will make a song number 1 across charts. In these moments that build up to something exciting, it is SUPER important to find time for rest and bask in the guidance of whatever gives us comfort.🔋

I wrote this issue with the intention of encouraging reconnection with yourself and with your community. I hope this piece will guide you like a ‘voice’ in this meditative reading experience. 🧘

What’s in this newsletter:

How to re-learn Maths and Science as an adult 🤔
Overcoming Information Overload 📅
A Data Community, Ready to Guide You 🤩
The Lifestyle of a Mentor 🛰️

Take a deep breath aaaaand happy reading!

READING TIME: 10 minutes

How to re-learn maths and science as an adult 🤔

In the words of famous chemist Rosalind Franklin, “Science should not be separated from everyday life.” We are especially appreciative of the guidance that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics provide as we celebrated National STEM/STEAM Day last November 8! 🔬

But what if you’re someone like me who’s spent her whole university life without taking a maths course? What if it seems like you can’t remember a thing from your science classes from secondary school or that it’s been a while since you’ve kept up with the latest discoveries? In a time where significant advancements in STEM are happening rapidly, it is completely human to feel like you’re lagging behind 😘 Luckily for us, there is an abundance of resources available to guide us to re-learn maths and science. Here are some of them!

PatrickJMT for maths for all levels
3Blue1Brown for fun, 20-minute maths videos
Wolfram Mathworld for maths problems
r/learnmath for a community who also wants to re-learn maths!
Kurzgesagt for animated videos on science, technology, space, and biology
Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki for a humorous blog on frequently asked questions in science
IFL Science for informative blogs on a mix of science disciplines

Overcoming information overload 📅

As much as I’m encouraging you to go through the resources posted above, I highly discourage doing it in one sitting! What happens when you have a bunch of ideas and information running through your head at the same time? Information overload- a state of being overwhelmed by the amount of data presented for one’s attention or processing 🤢 Multi-tasking our thoughts is counterproductive as it leads to indecisiveness, bad decisions, and stress. Here are some tips to guide you as you sort through your thoughts this time of the year:

Schedule breaks ⌛ - Step away from your computer. Take a walk. Make yourself a cup of tea. Some quiet time to yourself can help you look at things from a fresh perspective, thus helping you organise your ideas.
Set limits 📏 - The internet is so accessible that it is easy to get carried away absorbing information for hours. Limit how long you scan for them.
Keep your spaces clutter-free 🧹 - Your virtual and physical surroundings should be spacious and prepared enough to handle an influx of information.

We would definitely want to avoid cognitive overload when we start to do year-end reports at work. One way to transform massive information and ideas into a coherent line of thought is Data Storytelling! 📚 It is the ability to effectively communicate insights from datasets using narratives and visualisations. Through this, we are making sure that both ourselves and the people we are presenting information to don’t get overwhelmed. You can look forward to more insights on this topic on issue 64! (Not putting too much info here- see what I did there! 😉)

Data storytelling is one of the skills we champion at Eskwelabs. Luckily for you, admissions for the Data Analytics Bootcamp Cohort 9 is still open!

📊 Data Analytics Bootcamp | Cohort 9

Deadline for scholarship application: January 6, 2023
Early bird payment deadline: January 8, 2023
Deadline of assessment exam: January 15, 2023
Start of classes: January 30, 2023

Enroll here

A Data Community, Ready to Guide You 🤩

Whatever we are feeling this November, whether we are overwhelmed by information, curious and eager to learn, or excited for what’s to come, the feeling is meant to be shared with others 🗣️ If you are a data science professional, a data enthusiast from any industry and you are thinking of enrolling in our Data Science Fellowship, (hooray!) then we’ve got an early Christmas present for you! Our Demo Day is coming to guide you through our 15-week bootcamp ⛺

On this day of celebration our Eskwelabs community will present capstone projects, the culminating projects of our learners. Esteemed guests from the industry will be panel speakers and conduct a Q&A session in which our fellows can show their expertise by defending their projects. We hope that this event will guide aspiring learners about the ins and outs of the program and inspire ideas for those who will soon do their projects ✨

Is a sneak peek not enough? Register for our Demo Day and see what the excitement’s all about!

Register here

🖥️ Data Science Fellowship | Cohort 11

Early bird payment deadline: February 5, 2023
Deadline for scholarship application: February 10, 2023
Deadline of assessment exam: February 20, 2023
Start of classes: March 13, 2023

Enroll here

At this point in your meditative reading, you’ve already been guided in the following ways:

✅ Re-learning maths and science

✅ Managing your information and idea overload

✅ Getting to know a community with the same interest in data as you

What’s next ❓

The lifestyle of a mentor

I think it’s time for you to explore mentorship! 🛰️ Tying it with our intro of November being the rising action to our year-end climax, being guided by all these ideas and communities is preparing us to impart guidance to others. What better way to do this than mentorship: the idea of a more experienced person teaching and providing guidance to a less experienced one in a certain field. Now I know what you’re thinking, do I have what it takes to be one? More than the expertise in the field, am I practising the lifestyle of a mentor?

At its very core, a mentor should have a growth mindset so the rest of these qualities shall follow:

Passion to help and grow others 🌱 The growth of your mentee is the greatest reward you can receive in this undertaking.
Time and energy commitment ⚡ You are in a 100% in nurturing your relationship.
Willingness to share failures and personal experiences 🧠 Every experience is a learning experience.

Mentorship is something we’re proud of at Eskwelabs. Our learners will tell you fond stories of the mentors they’ve bonded with during their sprints and bootcamps. You can read more about this experience in our previous blog, The Idea of Mentorship. Take it a step further! Guide and be guided today :)

……aaaaand breathe out! I hope that this newsletter brought you an assurance that there will always be people and resources to guide you. Of course, the Eskwelabs community is always open to you, dear learners, in these climactic times.

Who or what do you rely on the most during this time? Let us know in this post or in our social media pages!

"Hi Eskweloves! It's Francine here. In today's issue and in November's theme reveal email, you got to meet Meg, Eskwelabs' Operations Associate and budding Content Designer. I am excited to pass the torch to Meg as editor of E is for Eskwelabs! Dear community, you are in good hands with this woman who is a lifelong learner at her core and a writer with a passion for following her curiosity. I believe in her, just as much as I believe that you'll warmly welcome her. So, it's been a joy and honor writing for you all. Thank you for taking a chance on all the issues we send twice a month, for never turning us away in your sacred inbox. I loved every moment that I would "hit publish." I'll still be in Eskwelabs in a new role, so I'll be happily rooting for Meg as she leads this newsletter to greater heights. Here's to a new era in the E is for Eskwelabs newsletter! If you'd like to send me a note, I will read all your responses and reply to each one of you. Simply leave a comment below. Cheering you on—always and forever, Francine. "

💌 Learning with you,

Meg Ruiz

Operations Associate and budding Content Designer at Eskwelabs

E is for Eskwelabs

E is for Eskwelabs Issue 63 - Looking for…