In the SSC’s First Annual Fundraising Drive, which took place in 2016, the past presidents were invited to make substantial gifts in support of the broad educational mission of the SSC, and they did so with great generosity, to a total of \$31,305. With successive annual membership renewal drives, the total collected has increased. At the end of 2018, the total stood at \$66,237, of which \$20,000 had been used to start an endowment. This article showcases what donations have made possible in the shorter term. 

Student Travel Awards

The fundraising committee has established a practice of recommending each year that \$2,000 be made available for awards for student travel to the SSC annual meeting, to supplement contributions from the SSC sections. The students have been very grateful for these awards. Some of the winners in 2019 are shown here.  

Fazaeh Yazdi, SFU; Michela Panarella and Thai-Song Tan (with Amy Liu), U. of Toronto; Amirhossein Alvandi, MUN; Anthony Coache, UQAM

Education and Outreach Projects

Otherwise, most of the funds have been directed toward the following projects proposed by SSC committees and the general membership, with awards ranging from \$1,750 to \$5,000.   

• Telling Canada’s Story in Numbers, a Statistics Canada-SSC project for Canada’s 150th anniversary. See the results at https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/blog/stories/winnerscan150
• For the statistics education branches of the SSC, a Census at School Canada Shiny App and development of a website for the International Statistical Literacy Project Poster Competition within Canada. 
• Commenting/rating functionality for StatSpace, an open on-line repository of modular material to support instruction in introductory statistics developed at UBC. This is an important step in expanding the reach of StatSpace nationally and internationally. Closer to home, StatSpace resources have been introduced to BC high school teachers via professional development day workshops to prepare them for teaching the new BC Statistics 12 high school course. The material from these workshops is posted on StatSpace. https://statspace.elearning.ubc.ca
• The first phase of the International Data Science in Schools Project (IDSSP), a cross-disciplinary venture involving an international team of computer scientists and statisticians from the leading professional associations for both disciplines, including the SSC. The purpose of the project is to promote and support the teaching of Introductory Data Science, particularly in the final years of secondary school. An international curriculum team with a supporting advisory group was recruited in 2017. Canadian members of the curriculum team include Wesley Burr (Statistics, Trent University), Alison Gibbs (Statistics, University of Toronto), and Raymond Ng (Computer Science, University of British Columbia), left to right below:    

Wesely Burr, Alison Gibbs, Raymond Ng

The Canadian members of the curriculum team attended three working meetings of the curriculum team (March 2018 in Los Angeles, July 2018 in Vancouver, and June 2019 in Alexandria, VA). A session at the SSC 2019 Annual Meeting in Calgary introduced the project to the SSC membership, with speakers Rob Gould (UCLA), Alison Gibbs, and Wesley Burr. SSC fundraising supported travel for Gould to attend the SSC meeting and Gibbs and Ng to attend the curriculum team meeting in Alexandria. Phase 1, development  of curriculum frameworks for students and teacher trainees in Introductory Data Science, was completed in August 2019, and the report is hosted at idssp.org.  

Members of the IDSSP development team, June 2019, L-R:  Neil Sheldon (UK), Nick Fisher (Australia), Chris Wild (New Zealand), Tim Hesterberg (USA), Rob Gould (USA), John Bailer (USA), Alan Fekete (Australia), Ajay Anand (USA), Raymond Ng (Canada), Alison Gibbs (Canada).

• A Data Science Bootcamp, held June 10–21, 2019 at the University of Saskatchewan. The objective was to introduce core topics in machine learning, analysis of high-dimensional data, and data visualization (including training in use of software such as Jupyter, Paraview and R), leading to hands-on knowledge in data science, and giving particular emphasis to applications to signature research areas at the University of Saskatchewan. The event attracted 50 participants.  

•  For Today’s Graduate, Just One Word: Statistics, to be held at the University of Toronto, February 21, 2020. This event, which we are co-funding with SAS, will bring together female secondary school students with a high aptitude for mathematics, and their teachers, to interact with women who work in the fields of statistics and data science, especially those in leadership roles. Teachers will also receive instruction on effective teaching methods in statistics. The goals of this event are consistent with the goals of the SSC of promoting probability and statistics to students and educators, and to help students develop careers in the statistical sciences.