Benjamin Mao

2409 Hidden Valley Lane

Silver Spring, MD, 20904
240-938-5072

Frauke Kreuter
Joint Program in Survey Methodology
1218 LeFrak Hall, 7251 Preinkert Dr.
College Park, MD, 20742
April 26th, 2018

Dear Dr. Kreuter,

I am interested in applying to the agricultural labor market statistics internship at the

National Agricultural Statistics Service in Washington D.C. As an Information Science major
and Statistic minor at the University of Maryland, College Park, I have a unique and diverse skill
set to offer offer the agency. I first became interested in statistics after I took AP Statistics during
my senior year of high school and I realized the importance of data gathering and analysis in the
real world. I am confident my experiences in both my statistics classes and internships can help
the USDA find trends in the labor market.

My experience with Learning Dollars Inc has further developed my data entry and
analysis skills. I helped create and maintain a large database of potential users and a small web
server. I was able to apply and expand upon my knowledge of SQL and Python as well as learn
the language Django. In addition, I was tasked with monitoring user traffic to the website and
generating a statistical analysis of my findings. To handle the large amount of raw data, I
employed SAS to complete the task as efficiently as possible, thus allowing me to hone my
skills with the software program. Through this experience, I successfully integrated statistical
analysis with Computer Science principles to increase company revenue.

As a robotics instructor for Griot Academy, an organization dedicated to keeping children

of all ages engaged in learning, I have developed strong leadership and collaborative skills. I
worked with children between the ages of 6 and 11, teaching the older ones basic programming
skills in Scratch and helping the younger children with building robots. In the process. I learned
to be a strong role model to maintain classroom order. The opportunity at Griot also gave me the
opportunity to work as a part of a team. I drafted lesson plans to ensure the students under care
were productive and attended board meetings where I delivered reports on student progress. All
of this work contributed to student development.
 Thank you for taking the time to consider me for the labor market statistician position.
You will find my resume attached. I would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you in person
to discuss how my qualifications and abilities will be beneficial to helping the USDA discover
new insights into labor trends. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Enclosures: 1

Sincerely,

Benjamin Mao