What’s the key to happiness in Monterey County?
Insight lies inside thousands of survey responses, waiting to be analyzed, interpreted, and shared.
“Information is valuable, but equally so is the effective communication and education related to that information,” said Joey Hebl, an international policy and development student at the Institute. “This can certainly be a challenge, and one often overlooked, when approaching a topic and project through an academic, graduate-school lens.”
Hebl is one of the most recent Middlebury Institute students who have contributed to a years-long project for the United Way of Monterey County through the Institute’s META (Mixed-Methods Evaluation, Training, and Analysis) Lab. The lab was launched in 2012, providing workshops and coaching for students with opportunities to work on real projects with community partners.
In 2022, Impact Monterey County surveyed 1,700 adults and youth over four months to better understand the community’s needs and aspirations after the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization then tapped the talents of Institute graduate students to distill insights from that data, under the guidance of Phil Murphy, professor of data analytics and director of META Lab.
Hebl came in on the latest phase of the project—producing 10 informational videos on the survey results, five each in English and Spanish, working with MPA student Jennifer Goodson.
“I enjoy any project that involves communicating complex sets of data in a way that is easily digestible and interesting,” said Goodson.
Neither started out with extensive experience in video production or animation. However, the challenge enticed both students to explore new skills through paid positions at META Lab.
“I really pictured the META Lab team as focused on data analysis and didn’t realize what a broad skill set they drew upon,” said Goodson, who was initially surprised when Professor Murphy encouraged her to apply to work on the project. “You don’t have to be a coder or statistician.”
Goodson and Hebl both helped produce simple, whiteboard-style videos in the software Doodly, also recording dialogue for the videos in META Lab’s podcast booths. The goals was to share clear, consistent messages across Monterey County’s diverse cultures.
“My enrollment at the Institute was partly due to my desire to work with the META Lab on community-oriented projects,” Hebl said. “This particular project allowed me to develop new skills in video design and production with a software that was new to me.”
I didn’t realize what a broad skill set [META Lab] drew upon. You don’t have to be a coder or statistician.
Another memorable aspect of the project was learning what collaboration looks like in remote and in-person teams on a long-term project.
“Seeing rounds of iteration and change requests, working through that and gaining a clearer understanding of the vision was really interesting and informative,” Goodson said.
“Working collaboratively with community members made it feel as though my efforts were applied more within a professional capacity than just as a student,” said Hebl. “I was a meaningful part of an interdisciplinary, professional project.”
Master of Arts in International Policy and Development
META Lab
| by Jessie Raymond
The largely student-run initiative provides students, faculty, and community partners with data analysis services ranging from software training to program evaluation to collaborative projects.
| by Marissa Gonzalez
Almost 50 Middlebury Institute students are practicum this semester spending their time and gaining invaluable skills in locations all over the globe from Alaska to Kenya.
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The inaugural fellows created a bilingual booklet to help the community engage - in both English and Spanish - with new sidewalk murals along routes to Salinas schools. The multi-year partnership with the Transportation Agency for Monterey County lets faculty and students put their skills to work on local community projects.
