Measurement & Evaluation (M&E) Team Launches Internship Program to Drive Big and Lasting Change

CVCF’s Measurement & Evaluation (M&E) team launched its first internship cohort this past summer. From July to August 2026, three undergraduate college students had the opportunity to learn from M&E’s Senior Researcher Chelsea Chapman, Ph.D., about how data can be used to influence public policy.

The M&E internship program was launched to explore current use cases for the Fresno Mobility Metrics data dashboard, which highlights data on 28 metrics and over 172 visualizations of upward mobility including education, health and employment.

 The internship opportunity was open to students who were interested in data analysis related to measuring upward economic and social mobility. Fresno State Professor Qin Fan, Ph.D., helped with the intern recruitment process, reaching out to current and former students. Ultimately, two Fresno State and one UC San Diego student, majoring in business administration or economics, were selected as interns.

Data was fundamental to the interns’ learning process. “The data from our dashboard was able to highlight how Fresno and other Central Valley counties were performing compared to peer counties across the state and nation,” Chelsea said. “The interns could then identify areas of need from the data, read literature and conduct interviews with community partners to understand the why.”

One of the interns, Daniela, a Fresno State student, analyzed housing affordability metrics for her project. She was inspired by her own personal struggles with securing housing after moving from San Jose to Fresno with her three children to flee a domestic violence situation.

While analyzing data, she noticed a correlation between housing access and people’s incomes. Each zip code of residence required a certain income threshold to secure housing within that area, with Daniela noting that most Fresno County cities required an income of at least $28.54 per hour, 40 hours a week, to afford housing (Fresno Mobility Metrics Data Dashboard, Housing Affordability metric). “You need a job and so much more to be self-sustainable,” Daniela said. “Being in survival mode while trying to make a change presents many invisible barriers. Speaking on my personal experience, you leave survival mode and are in this weird stage of feeling unmotivated. My children were my driving force to leave my situation.”

From her research, Daniela reached the conclusion that “housing affordability is a detriment to mental health.” She underscored that two things must happen to improve housing security: people must vote to affect social policy and change and those in need of housing assistance must fully use the resources available to them. “I hope it opens people’s eyes to see the importance of handling problems at once when difficulties happen,” Daniela said. “There are compounding factors. When you lose a job, you need to find a new source of income quickly. You must push pass those barriers and use available resources to propel yourself forward”

Another internship project led by Fresno State student Oliver analyzed digital access disparity for Latino families in Fresno County. He used the data dashboard and community partner connections to write a social policy brief with recommendations for public policy and investment areas. He further explored the issue by posing the question: “If families get digital access, are they able to use it safely and effectively and to apply for employment?” This led to Oliver securing another internship opportunity through Career Nexus Bridge Forward at B3 Broadband, focusing on digital access for rural areas, including churches. “The data dashboard project was especially meaningful to me because the digital divide is something that has affected both me and people I know,” he said.

Jeffrey is a UC San Diego student whose project studied the significant decline between employment and other prosperity metrics including debt-to-income and digital access and the strength of those associations. He conducted a complex geographic analysis and compared what counties are most like Fresno and the Central Valley and what tools are working for them. He hopes that any helpful components identified for Fresno County could be shared with other peer counties.    

Chelsea is proud of the interns’ dedication to their projects over the summer. She hopes to expand the data dashboard internship program to have more interns exploring data related to Fresno DRIVE’s initiatives to increase awareness of economic disparities and encourage data usage by the community. “I’m so impressed with the interns’ ability to go out in the community and forge these connections,” Chelsea said. “It’s a notable example of CVCF and DRIVE being convenors and making these partnerships between interns and community-benefit partners possible. I would love to see CVCF’s mission and values adopted by young, passionate interns who are interested in amplifying the Foundation’s mission of no barriers, just opportunity, all people.”

Stay tuned for updates on the publication of the interns’ projects. To explore the data dashboard, click here.