Center for Social Research

CSR Past Employee Update!

One of the most common questions we get from people inquiring about the CSR is “How can the CSR benefit me?” As part one of this explanation, and, because we are always looking for excuses to talk with past CSR employees, we thought we would share with you what our former employees are up to! Note: If you are a past employee and have something to share, please tell us what you are doing and we’ll make another post.

(Hover your mouse over the pictures to see who they are!)

Sara Achauer: Sara is currently working full-time as a Research Technician Senior at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) in the Child Care and Early Education Archive (CCEERC). She plans to start graduate school part-time in the Fall at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. She will be working towards her Master’s in Health Behavior and Health Education with a focus on childbearing and maternal health. Sara is also training to become a doula (labor support person for women during the childbearing year) this summer. On a more personal note, she is engaged to a computer science engineer, Maxwell Lazaroff, who works for Barracuda Networks. They plan to get married next year on July 7th and buy a house around Ann Arbor.

Kirsten Anderson: Kirsten is currently working as an Evaluation Consultant for Hanssen Consulting in Eastown, Grand Rapids. Hanssen Consulting is a company that specializes in professional development and program evaluation. She performs such duties as creating questionnaires, collecting data, conducting data analyses, and assisting with the development of new proposals.

Jordan Bruxvoort: Jordan has been working as a church-based community organizer for the Michigan Organizing Project, a non-profit group. The focus of his work is building relationships with congregations in the Grand Rapids area and inviting them to be a part of a coalition of churches that works together on issues of social justice. They are currently focused on the National Campaign for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, and they hope to have the capability to take on another social justice issue soon. Jordan tells us that his experience with the Kent County Congregational Study (KCCS) while working at the CSR has proven to be very valuable for the work that he is doing in his new position!

Brian Odegaard: Brian is currently a graduate student in the UCLA Psychology Department, specializing in behavioral neuroscience and computational cognition. Brian just finished up his first year of classes and will be focusing full-time on research this summer, investigating the influence of attention on multi-sensory processing.

Amanda Stek: Amanda is currently living in Indonesia with her husband, Joel Berends. During this past year she worked for Universitas Pelita Harapan doing international accreditation, volunteered with World Vision Indonesia on their Child Health Now campaign, and did consultant work with International Relief and Development (IRD). She also studied the Indonesian language and hopes to be fluent by the end of her second year in Indonesia. This coming year, she will be applying to graduate school for the year of 2011 in the field of International Relations and Policy.

Michael Sullivan: is working as a Law Associate in the Corporate department of Simpson Thacher and Bartlett. He helps big companies buy and sell other companies, and also helps companies buy and sell their stocks and bonds.

Leia Vos: After Leia left CSR, she went on to complete her final Calvin semester in Chicago working in the University of Illinois at Chicago’s psychiatric center on Mental Health Research and Policy. She has commented to us that while working there, she was able to use a lot of the skills she learned at the CSR and generally had a great experience. She is planning to continue her studies in the Fall at Wayne State University, working towards her doctorate in Clinical Psychology. Leia is also getting married at the end of July!

Nikole Voss: Nikole has been working as a family advocate at the YWCA West Central Michigan. She does case management in the 2-year supportive housing program with women and children who are survivors of domestic violence. She plans on beginning grad school part time, working towards a Master’s in Social Work over the next one or two years. Nikole is getting married at the end of July, and as a matter of fact, Leia and Nikole are getting married on the same day! The CSR is happy to hear that Nikole, as we remember of her, still enjoys games, colored pens and movie nights.

 

CSR Staff Updates

As the end of the school year approaches, the CSR staff is making plans for the future.

• First off, we welcome two new student research assistants: Debora Velis Guzman and Zig Ingraffia. Debora is a senior Economics and Business double major, Zig is a senior Psychology major with an English minor, and we look forward to working with both of them.

  Several Research Assistants are leaving CSR to start new chapters in their lives. Here is what they are up to!

• Kristin Booy plans to teach English in South Korea in the fall.
• Michael Evans-Totoe has accepted an internship position at Steelcase.
• Jeff Schiman will be studying Economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
• Leia Vos begins a doctorate program in Psychology at Wayne State University next fall.

CSR co-sponsors 2010 conference, “Reformed Mission in an Age of World Christianity”

CSR is pleased to be a co-sponsor with other Calvin College Centers and Institutes of the 2010 Reformed Mission in an Age of World Christianity conference; follow this link to read more about it. Open to all, the June 15-17, 2010 conference immediately precedes the inaugural meeting of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) on Calvin's campus. Register now! Then read on for more about CSR's plans for a focus group research project at the conference.

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April 8 CSR Presentation: Data visualization with KCCS

Using data from the Kent County Congregations Study, CSR staff will showcase emerging tools and methods for visual data analysis.

Please join us:

Thursday April 8, 2010 3:30 p.m., Meeter Center Lecture Hall Calvin College

See the entire poster!

UPDATE: See the presentation (PowerPoint 2007)!

How big is government? Visualizing U.S. government expenses

Click to enlarge image

Given the pending $940 billion health care reform bill in the U.S. Congress, along with the $787 billion economic stimulus bill enacted in 2009, there is a lot of public controversy about the scope of public spending in the U.S. Just how unusual is the Obama administration's spending, and why? As shown in the static image above, it is clear that the Obama administration's 2009 spending dwarfs prior years and reaches for a 48-year maximum near 35% of non-government GDP before offsets. But this fact is not alone--it also represents the summation of trends long in the making. Whatever you think, the interactive visualization below may help to put the spending surge in its proper context. For example, before 2009 the record holder appears to have been the Reagan Administration in 1983, with nearly 30% of non-governmental GDP before offsets. Recessions take a toll on the economy that drives up the government's share.

At CSR, we are learning to use a powerful new tool called Tableau, a data visualization and analysis application that is evolving from origins in business intelligence. With the recent release of version 5.1, Tableau now includes Tableau Public, a free service that allows anyone to create and post interactive visualizations like the one below. Tableau is sponsoring a contest through March 26, and our interactive entry is below--please read on.

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