The Student- Mentor Workspace Organization & Structure

Each student has a dedicated workspace to document progress and deliverables.

• student/ is shared (student + mentor)
• mentor/ is mentor-only (private notes and drafts)

/Data_Skills_Pathway/students/lastname_firstname/
├── student/
│   ├── 00_admin/
│   ├── 01_orientation/
│   ├── 02_tools_workshop/
│   ├── 03_data_collection_or_modeling/
│   ├── 04_guided_analysis/
│   ├── 05_capstone_project/
│   ├── 06_deliverables/
│  
└── mentor/
    ├── 00_meeting_notes/

This is the main working space. Everything the student produces should be documented in this workspace. This workspace will be shared between the student and mentor.

Purpose: setup + planning + project organization. Put here:

• learning plan (goals + skills to practice)
• work schedule (weekly plan + meeting time)
• project brief (project title, question, scope, success criteria)
• contacts + quick links + access notes (tools/data locations)
• any required forms/templates

Purpose: Week 1–2 orientation products. Put here:

• orientation reflections
• career/skills goal notes
• project interests + initial project selection notes

Purpose: Week 3–4 training outputs. Put here:

• practice notebooks/scripts
• “how-to” notes (plotting, data cleaning, reading files)
• small exercises and mini-checkpoints

Purpose: Week 5–10 data intake and/or model output preparation. Put here:

• raw data notes (where data came from, time ranges, variables)
• configuration/metadata notes
• model run notes (if applicable)
• data/model log (what you downloaded/processed and why)

Purpose: Week 5–10 analysis with mentor guidance. Put here:

• weekly progress log (weekly)
• analysis notebooks/scripts used for figures/results
• figures/ (plots + captions)
• intermediate findings and “next steps” notes

Purpose: Week 11–15 capstone mini-project build. Put here:

• project plan + milestones
• final analysis notebook/script versions
• final figure set
• draft report text and draft slides

Purpose: final submission package (clean and complete). Put here:

• final_report.pdf (or .docx if requested)
• final_slides.pdf (or .pptx)
• reproducibility_readme.md (how to reproduce the results)
• final figures (publication-ready)

This folder is not for student writing. It is for mentor-only notes and drafts. The mentor can share his notes with the student (when needed).

Purpose: internal meeting records:

• meeting date + attendance
• Tasks + notes and follow-up items

Mentor notes are private by default. If the mentor wants to share feedback with a student, the mentor will place a cleaned version inside the mentor workspace and use a clear filename such as:

• feedback_shared_YYYYMMDD.md

Student notification requirement When a student uploads new items or adds new notes (logs, notebooks, figures, drafts), the student must email their mentor the same day (or within 24 hours) to:

• confirm what was added/updated,
• provide the exact path to the new files, and
• List any questions or blockers.

Subject line (use one of these):

• Data Skills Pathway – Update (lastname_firstname) – Week X
• Data Skills Pathway – New Uploads (lastname_firstname) – [date]

Email body (copy/paste template):

Hi [Mentor Name],

I uploaded/updated new items in my Data Skills Pathway workspace. Paths are below:

1) What I added/updated (with paths)
- [short description] — /Data_Skills_Pathway/students/lastname_firstname/student/[folder]/[filename]
- [short description] — /Data_Skills_Pathway/students/lastname_firstname/student/[folder]/[filename]

2) Key results (1–3 bullets)
- [result/figure summary]
- [result/figure summary]

3) Questions / blockers
- [question or blocker]
- [question or blocker]

4) What I’m doing next (next 1 week)
- [next step]

Thank you,
[Student Name]

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