Sociology major and Wood Honors College student Kayce Cook, presented research at the 2025 Minds@Work conference, where she examined how neighborhood demographics impact access to advanced high school coursework like AP, IB and dual enrollment options.
Cook, a junior, plans to pursue a master’s in higher education and student affairs. She is an honors ambassador, student ambassador, peer anchor, member of the Activities Programming Board (APB), summer orientation team leader, and a student lead at the Chick-fil-A on campus.
Under the mentorship of Dr. David Monaghan, Cook researched the availability of advanced coursework throughout PA schools by connecting schools to US Census data and demographics.
“One of the biggest challenges has been cleaning and organizing the raw datasets, especially when working with American Community Survey data,” Cook said. “The original variables weren’t clearly labeled, requiring extra documentation to understand.”
Having no prior background working with census data, Cook had a lot to learn. She spent many hours relabeling variables, checking file formats and ensuring consistency across datasets. She emphasized that although the research was tedious, it was worth it.
“It’s been a really valuable learning opportunity,” she said. “I’ve gained so many technical skills, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that without Dr. Monaghan’s consistent patience and support.”
The main element of her research involved using the US Census Bureau Batch Geocoder to match schools with their corresponding census tracts. This allowed Cook and Monaghan to analyze how educational opportunities vary across neighborhoods.
“Even though we haven’t fully tied the demographic and educational data together yet, having the schools matched to census tracts sets us up to connect them to American Community Survey data,” she explained. “That will allow us to explore how access to AP, IB and dual enrollment opportunities may vary across communities.”
Cook also spent the winter break teaching herself how to use Stata, a statistical software programing commonly used in social sciences. She learned to code, merge files and troubleshoot errors.
“There are days when I mess up a lot of code,” Cook said. “But Dr. Monaghan just helps me find my errors and is encouraging and reassures me that I will get it. His support has made a huge difference and has helped me feel more confident.”
Cook’s presentation shed light on the fact that access to advanced coursework does not always mean that students will take advantage of these opportunities.
“I find it particularly interesting that although many students have access to advanced coursework like AP, DE and IB, participation remains surprisingly low,” she noted. “This highlights a significant gap between availability and actual enrollment.”
Throughout the research process, Cook learned how vital data preparation is for research.
“If your data isn’t clearly labeled and well-organized from the start, it can create a lot of problems later on,” she said. “But those challenges are part of the process, and working through them has helped me grow as a researcher.”
Cook’s project exemplifies what student research and Minds@Work is all about — providing students with the opportunity to hone in on their interests and collect and analyze data that can provide real-world value.
Shippensburg University acknowledges the hard work that went into preparing and presenting their research findings at the Minds@Work conference this past Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
