Hi, I’m Tamara Jacod! I graduated from an undergrad in Education at McGill this spring. During my undergrad, I developed an interest in educational policy and how it shapes the learning and teaching experience. This interest resulted from opportunities to teach in, or visit, schools around the world, and see first-hand how policy radically changed the way teaching and learning is done. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be the co-founder of SHE Program, a student-run organization aiming to prepare pre-service and in-service teachers to the new sexual health education curriculum in elementary and high schools across Québec. Although I had extensive experience as a teacher in schools for an undergraduate, I had a very limited amount of exposure to quantitative research or data analysis.
PODS has allowed me to gain some incredibly valuable skills that I will be able to use for my entire career, but most importantly, has provided me with a critical way of thinking about data, data analysis, and AI in real world contexts. PODS has also allowed me to expand the possible horizon of research topics for graduate school, and consequently, I am now interested in looking at ways to study AI, Ethics, and Policy in the context of the Quebec education system.
Currently, I am interning at CIUSSS Centre-Sud (Centre Intégré Universitaire de Santé et de Services Sociaux) analyzing the distribution inequalities of food programs in primary schools in the greater Montreal area. This work has been fascinating and is teaching me about the challenging but necessary work to provide sound and evidence-based policy to the public. Working in the public sector has cemented my desire to work for the Ministry of Education.
I am extremely grateful for the experiences PODS has offered me, and for the wonderful, talented, and driven people I have the chance to meet and work alongside this summer!
