Zhenya Ratushko

Position title: CDIS Student Ambassador

Hometown: Rochester, MN

Major(s): Data Science & Environmental Studies

Certificate(s): Political Science & Geospatial Data Science

Campus activities/involvement: Wisconsin Hoofers (VP of Information Systems @ Council level, member of Outing, Sailing, and Scuba clubs), Ukrainian Student Club, Political Science Student Association, dotData

Work/internship experience: Data & Metrics Student Lead (prev. Student Developer) at UW-Madison DoIT General Help Desk, Data Analyst Intern at Hennepin County Assessor’s Office 
 
Research experience: Research Assistant at UW-Madison Political Science Department
 
Study abroad experience: Massey University Exchange, FA ’24 (Palmerston North, New Zealand)

What is your favorite part of being a CDIS student: I like how interdisciplinary my CDIS major is. It’s cool to be able to take such a wide variety of classes in support of it, from Intro to AI to Applied Database Design to Geocomputing – truly something for everyone!