By Sienn Cai
A reflection on my two-month internship creating data-driven insights for sustainable tourism in Nepal
At OneNature, we believe in cultivating the next generation of changemakers—those who bring curiosity, technical skill, and heart to the world’s most pressing challenges. This summer, we were lucky to work with Sienn Cai, one of our 2025 interns from the University of Chicago. With a triple major in Computational & Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics, Sienn brought her sharp mind and deep commitment to ethical AI to a vital project in Nepal. In this reflection, she shares her experience building a dynamic community wellbeing dashboard to support sustainable tourism in the Khumbu region—showing how data can be a powerful tool for equity, insight, and impact.
The Challenge: From Raw Data to Actionable Insights
Two months ago, I embarked on an exciting journey with OneNature to tackle a meaningful challenge: transforming raw survey data from Nepal’s Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality (in partnership with Planet Happiness) into a comprehensive wellbeing dashboard. The goal? To help guide sustainable tourism development by putting community wellbeing at the heart of decision-making.
OneNature has partnered with conservation and development organisations across Africa and Asia to conduct similar wellbeing surveys, analyse results, and generate recommendations that boost both wellbeing and project impact. This time, the challenge went a step further—creating a sophisticated, interactive dashboard to bring the data to life.
The Process: Data Cleaning, Analysis, and Visualisation
Starting from Zero
I began with a CSV file containing hundreds of survey responses to 77 questions—measuring nine domains of wellbeing, including life satisfaction, health, community vitality, tourism impact, and environmental quality. Each response had to be cleaned, standardised, and validated before meaningful insights could emerge.
Key Technical Achievements
- Data Cleaning: Standardised scoring systems, managed missing data, and ensured consistency
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Statistical Analysis: Calculated domain scores and uncovered trends across demographics—including the “tourism paradox,” where 98% support tourism growth despite cultural concerns
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Dashboard Development: Built an interactive HTML dashboard featuring panels for demographics, wellbeing scores, ward comparisons, and open-text sentiment
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AI Integration: Used Claude Code and ChatGPT to perform sentiment analysis of Nepali and English responses, extracting themes and community narratives
My Digital Workspace: Using Notion for Project Management
To manage the complexity of this project, I used Notion to create a streamlined and transparent workflow:
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Project Database: Logged all scripts, analyses, and insights by type (demographics, tourism, economy, etc.)
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Daily Logs: Tracked progress, challenges, solutions, and questions for mentors
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Task Management: Used a Kanban board to manage tasks from “To Analyse” to “Complete”
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Documentation Wiki: Compiled a full data dictionary, methodology notes, reusable code, and meeting records
This structure made it easier to organise, repeat, and communicate the work.
Gratitude to My Mentors and Collaborators
This experience was made possible by the unwavering support of the OneNature team and our partner, Paul Rogers from Planet Happiness. I learned so much from their feedback, encouragement, and belief in the value of data-driven storytelling.
Skills Developed
This internship gave me hands-on experience with:
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Python (pandas, matplotlib, seaborn)
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AI tools for natural language processing
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Dashboard design and user experience principles
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Cross-cultural data interpretation
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Project management and documentation in a real-world setting
Looking Ahead
This project deepened my passion for using data science to drive meaningful social change. The dashboard we created isn’t just a technical tool—it’s a platform for amplifying community voices and guiding decisions that make tourism more inclusive and sustainable.
OneNature will continue refining and using this dashboard in future initiatives.
To my fellow data enthusiasts: remember, behind every dataset are real people and lived experiences. Let’s keep building tools that honour their stories.
Interested in community-driven data or sustainable tourism?
I’d love to connect and share more—feel free to reach out!
With Gratitude
Sienn Cai
Team OneNature