Data Story

                   For our Data Story, Eric and I thought it would be interesting to investigate some of the statistics that we are surrounded by on an everyday basis—our peers.
                   It is easy to say that Vermont exists as a state that is not extremely ethnically diverse. In fact the United States Census Bureau for Vermont shows that as of 2013, Vermont’s population has consisted of approximately 95.2% white individuals and less than 2% of every other ethnic background.
                  That being said, Eric and I were not entirely surprised but still interested to see that the student body of Lyndon State College is made up of 90.8% white individuals, 2.2% African American individuals and less than 2% of every other ethnicity.
                  After investigating these statistics, we were left with the curiosity of what the ethnic makeup of other Vermont colleges consisted of.
                We decided to compare our Lyndon State to Johnson State College, seeing as the populations of these two schools are slightly similar. Our findings were not entirely what we expected as 83% of the students attending Johnson State had reported identifying as white, 7% as American Indian, 3% Native Hawaiian, and less than 2% of every other ethnicity.
                Because the numbers for both Vermont, as a state, and Lyndon, as a reflection of Vermont, had proved to be so dominantly White, we were surprised that the numbers for Johnson did not reflect that same pattern. However, what Johnson’s numbers included that neither Lyndon’s nor Vermont’s did, was a large number of unreported ethnicity. About 8.2% of students had never reported what background they identified as, which left a great deal of room for speculation.                 Continuing to search for interpretation behind the numbers, Eric and I sought out the admissions office of Lyndon State, to better understand what drew certain ethnic groups to particular places. The admissions office informed us, that while Lyndon may not be extremely diverse, the college is always working on programs and different ways to attract people from all over the country and even the world to its facilities. They also mentioned that despite the number of ethnically diverse students, Lyndon State does in fact have the largest amount of out of state students, then all other state colleges within Vermont.