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STEM 5 Data Warriors Student Research Fellows Chosen to Work With SCSD Youth

Data Warriors project students and instructors visited campus recently for an event with a visiting mathematician/musician at Hendricks Chapel. (Photo by Martin Walls)

5 Data Warriors Student Research Fellows Chosen to Work With SCSD Youth

Graduate and undergraduate students will work with 21 high schoolers and will use math, maps and data analysis to study and solve community issues.
Diane Stirling Nov. 13, 2025

Five students have been selected as and will work with the project, an initiative that helps 聽(SCSD) youth build math and data literacy skills to address pressing issues in their community.

The fellows will work with Nicole Fonger, associate professor of mathematics and mathematics education in the and . Fonger is the 2025-27 faculty fellow.

Six women pose together in an office or classroom setting with large windows showing bare trees and buildings outside. Five women stand in the back row, while one woman sits at a table in the front.
Nicole Fonger, seated, Lender Center faculty fellow for 2025-27, and her student fellows are already at work on their Data Warriors project. Standing from left are Meghavarshini Iska, Shavonne Jacobs, Camilla McAskin, Shameen Fatima, Lauren Ashby. (Photo by Megan Chelednik)

The student research fellows are:

G鈥23, 鈥25, a third-year doctoral student in sociology in the who also earned master鈥檚 degrees in both sociology and geography. The Syracuse native graduated from SCSD and has been involved in the Data Warriors program for four years. Her work blends ethnography, interviews, GIS mapping and youth participatory action research to explore how young people address segregation and inequity.

鈥27, a dual economics and international relations major in the Maxwell School with a minor in entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises. She serves as a University student ambassador and is part of the Ren茅e Crown University Honors Program. She founded the Ikya Women’s Health Foundation to promote women鈥檚 health awareness and wellness in her home country of Zambia.

鈥28, a double major in policy studies and law, society and policy in the Maxwell School with minors in business and information management and technology. She is the founder and president of the 网爆门 chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters.

G’27, a master鈥檚 student in communication and rhetorical studies in the . Her research focuses on how rhetoric shapes language policies and narratives of grief, trauma and belonging. She is the founder of the Disorders Collective, a community platform on mental health in South Asia.

Shavonne Jacobs ’27, an information management and technology major in the with a minor in architecture. Her interests bridge technology, architecture and environmental science.

Started in 2021, the Data Warriors project now includes 21 researchers from two SCSD high schools. They use math, maps and data analysis to study lead poisoning, code violations, housing conditions, car thefts and income disparities, as well as current immigration policies and historic parallels in Syracuse. The high schoolers aim to train as community-engaged scholars; support community-engaged math education; and inform local government officials about their research findings.

A group of students in matching black t-shirts present their work around a "POSTERS by Data Warriors" display board in a bright room with hardwood floors and large windows.
Members of the Data Warriors campus researchers group presented findings of their community research to a meeting of the University’s Engaged Humanities Center.

Data Warriors students and their teachers visited campus recently to attend mathematician and musician Eugenia Cheng鈥檚 lecture and performance, 鈥淭he Logic of Creativity: Music, Mathematics and Expression,鈥 part of the School of Education鈥檚 Ganders Lecture Series. The group will present their research on lead poisoning in Syracuse at the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State conference in Rochester this month.