Interested in data analysis? There’s a program for a select few in Miami-Dade
Miami-based workers and students with a STEM background — from software engineers to technical marketers — are guaranteed at least two dozen slots in an upcoming program to train diverse talent for data science careers.
The 13-week Data Science for All online program, created by the tech company Correlation One, aims to upskill up to 10,000 workers from underrepresented communities including Black, Latino, female and LGBTQ+ for in-demand, high-paying careers in technology. The program is free.
Recent data show that Black people make up just 3% of data and analytics professionals and women overall make up only 15% of data scientists, according to the recruiting firm Harnham. The average salary for a data scientist is $122,865 per year in the United States, according to February figures from the jobs site Indeed.
The Data Science for All program is now accepting applications for its online course this spring. The Miami-Dade Beacon Council will provide four fellowships for candidates based in the county. The city of Miami will provide 25 fellowships, 20 for applicants in Miami and five specifically for publicsector workers.
Around 13,000 people from the U.S. and Latin America have already applied for a cohort of around 1,000.
The online program convenes on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. starting April 17. Participants will receive training on data, analytics and
Python. Mentorship opportunities will be available. Data Science for All also connects participants to employment opportunities at the multinational tech conglomerate SoftBank, a partner of the initiative.
Registration for the program ends March 7.
Applications are available online at c1-web. correlation-one.com/ ds4a-empowerment
“Our community’s future
success will be built on dramatically expanding upskilling opportunities for underrepresented groups and building a workforce with the skills for the jobs of tomorrow. This effort does both,” said Matt Haggman, executive vice president of One Community One Goal at the Miami-Dade Beacon Council. “That’s why we joined in piloting this program in Miami and hope to see it
grow in a big way with future cohorts of students. We are sharing far and wide across the community, encouraging as many people as we can to apply.”
The Miami-Dade Beacon Council will provide four fellowships for candidates based in the county. The City of Miami will provide 25 fellowships, 20 for applicants in Miami and five specifically for publicsector workers.
A former member of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration who previously accused him of sexual harassment offered new details Wednesday, saying he once kissed her on the lips without consent. Lindsey Boylan said that during her more than three years in the Democrat’s administration, Cuomo “would go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs,” compared her to one of his rumored ex-girlfriends, and once remarked they should play strip poker.
Cuomo’s spokesperson Caitlin Girouard said that all Boylan’s “claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false.” But the state legislature’s two top leaders criticized Cuomo’s alleged conduct Wednesday as calls grew for an investigation.
Boylan, a Democrat running for Manhattan borough president, made the new allegations in a post on the website Medium more than two months after she first spoke up about alleged mistreatment by Cuomo. At the time, she hadn’t provided details. But on Wednesday, she attributed her decision to say more to Assembly member Ron Kim levying public accusations of bullying and threats from Cuomo and his aides last week.
She wrote that the kiss happened at the end of a one-on-one meeting with Cuomo at his New York City office. “As I got up to leave and walk toward an open door, he stepped in front of me and kissed me on the
lips. I was in shock, but I kept walking,” she wrote. “The idea that someone might think I held my highranking position because of the Governor’s ‘crush’ on me was more demeaning than the kiss itself.”
Boylan, a former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to Cuomo, confirmed she wrote the blog entry.
When Boylan initially tweeted in December that Cuomo sexually harassed her, the governor denied he did anything inappropriate.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat, called Boylan’s
account “deeply disturbing.” “Harassment in the workplace of any kind should not be tolerated,” said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, also a Democrat.
Boylan, who joined the administration economic development agency in the spring of 2015, said she first met Cuomo at a Madison Square Garden event in January 2016. “My boss soon informed me that the Governor had a ‘crush’ on me,” Boylan wrote. “It was an uncomfortable but alltoo-familiar feeling: the struggle to be taken seriously by a powerful man who tied my worth to my body and my appearance.”
Boylan included a screenshot of Nov. 4, 2016, text message exchange with her mother, in which Boylan said Cuomo was being “creepy” and “has a crush on me.” She also posted a screenshot of a Dec. 14, 2016, email in which an aide wrote Cuomo had compared Boylan to a woman he was rumored to have dated.
“You could be sisters. Except you’re the better looking sister,” the aide wrote.
During an October 2017 flight, she said Cuomo said, “Let’s play strip poker” as they sat with a press aide and a state trooper. She said she brushed it off by sarcastically saying, “That’s exactly what I was thinking,” but privately found the comment upsetting.
The governor’s office confirmed that Boylan flew with Cuomo on four occasions that month. But “We were on each of these October flights and this conversation did not happen,” said a statement attributed to former senior adviser John Maggiore, former Empire State Development CEO Howard Zemsky, former Cuomo press secretary Dani Lever and former first deputy press secretary Abbey Fashouer Collins.
South Miami Vice Mayor Robert “Bicycle Bob” Welsh, a community advocate and “modern-day Johnny Appleseed,” died Tuesday at Baptist Health after battling skin cancer and related health problems. He was 67.
“He was larger than life,” his wife, Marilyn Magill told the Miami Herald Wednesday. “Bob did nothing small. Everything he did was huge.”
Welsh was born and raised around South Miami, and attended Coral Gables High School, where he was on the school’s swim team. He paid his way through Florida International University by mowing lawns. He majored in political science, and learned Spanish while working construction jobs. Welsh went on to support himself by building houses on cheap, undeveloped parcels of land around South Miami. The rental properties supported his other interests, like planting trees.
He was first elected in 2012 to the commission, where he championed environmental issues, economic efficiency and thoughtful development in commercial areas. He most recently ran unopposed for his second four-year term in November 2020. There will be a special election in May to determine Walsh’s successor, according to South Miami Mayor Sally Philips.
His time in office wasn’t without the typical drama of South Florida local politics. Some politicians accused Welsh of racism when he handed out controversial fliers that played off an infamous broken promise made to freed slaves during the Reconstruction era. One city manager complained Welsh’s fliers interfered with his job, as they invited large groups of residents to speak publicly against city projects during meetings that were not set up for public comment.
Philips, who was both a friend and colleague to Welsh on the city commission, said he always “raised the rabble when necessary — and sometimes when it wasn’t.”
“But there was never anything ugly about what he did or what he wanted,” she said. “He acted on his values.”
THE ‘TOWN CRIER’
Welsh, known to many in South Miami as just “Bicycle Bob,” was seemingly everywhere.
On a given day on Sunset Drive or Southwest 72nd Street, he could be seen sitting on a stool, holding a campaign sign in support of a local candidate. At local events, he was often there to supply red folding chairs and smoked turkey, his specialty. If residents basked in the shade of an oak tree, it may very well be one of Welsh’s, which he grew on his farm in rural Hardee County and planted around South Miami.
“He was like Bottom the weaver in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’” said Phillip Stoddard, a close friend of Welsh’s and the former mayor of South Miami. “He wanted to play every role.”
And of course, anyone who spent time in South Miami would inevitably see Welsh on his bicycle, which he rode through every street in the city — and sometimes, outside the city — handing out fliers printed margin to margin with his topics du jour. Because of the fliers, everyone knew where he stood on the major issues.
“His friends call him the town crier,” said Magill, who celebrated her 20th wedding anniversary with Welsh just 10 days ago. “He was always giving people a heads-up about what was going on in South Miami.”
While holding public office was important to Welsh, he prided himself on his tree-planting effort, which populated the city with oak trees, Dade County Pines and even mango trees for those who requested them. The trees were free of charge to whoever wanted them. Magill estimates Welsh planted more than 2,000 trees around South Miami.
Philips, who met Welsh when she moved to a house one block away from him 20 years ago, once asked how she could repay him for the trees he planted in her yard. All he asked for was an eggplant lasagna.
‘BOB’ TREES
In Facebook posts memorializing Welsh’s life, dozens of residents shared anecdotes of their “Bob trees” which have thrived in South Miami’s rocky soil due to Welsh’s tactful jack-hammering techniques.
A typical day for Welsh was spent planting five or six trees, usually delivered in his pickup truck, which he used to haul a trailer full of saplings from his fiveacre plot in Wauchula. He befriended the farmers in the rural Central Florida city, home to just 5,000 people. They traded mangoes for melons, and shared stories about their days. The plot was near the Center for Great Apes, an orangutan and chimpanzee sanctuary where the late pop star Michael Jackson’s chimp, Bubbles, now lives and where Magill, a passionate animal lover, worked as a volunteer.
Magill said that as she walks their dogs through their neighborhood, she can recognize trees he planted over the years, in public spaces and in the yards of friends and neighbors. She and Welsh met as neighbors, and maintained their two separate houses until he died. His house was “the garage,” full of tools available to borrow for anyone who asked, political posters, musical instruments and, of course, bicycles.
Magill said it is hard to imagine a South Miami without him.
“Everybody loved him,” Magill said. “He has an energy like you can’t believe.”
The city of South Miami will host a memorial at the park at 7435 SW 66th Ave. Wednesday, March 3 at 4 p.m.