The Future Has No Fixed Path | Toni Holcombe on AI, Learning and the Courage to Pivot

Hey, welcome to a special edition of AGI Schools on Saturdays, where we're talking about preparing students for their future, not our past. Since 2024 in Indiana, we have had this week in September has been our Celebrating Women in Tech Week. And I have a new friend that I met who was on the podcast on Wednesday to talk about being in data analytics. And actually, when we met, it was her passion about working with students with younger people and with other people to empower them to move into these careers that made me think, man, I got to get her on the Schools Out podcast. So, Toni, I know you introduced yourself the other day, but go ahead and reintroduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you.

Hi, I'm Toni Holcomb, and I really like data. I

do. It's fun. Have you ever seen Jackass, the movie?

I think so. Yeah.

There's a scene where I won't describe it because it's, you know, it's jackass, but he is telling a doctor about something he did. And the doctor's like, don't tell anybody else about this. I already know. And that's too many people. That's what I feel like when I hear somebody say, I

like data. It takes all types.

God bless the people who like data and grant writing. Those are two of my favorite people in the whole world because I do not like either. But like you're starting to share this with others. Tell us a little bit about what that looks like.

I'm sorry. I did not.

No, you and I had talked about you're doing some education around data, right? Like, what does that look like? And where does that passion come from?

Well, what I am doing is I have started a podcast of my own where I am interviewing people who are looking for work in this job market and this new industry. unprecedented times of AI writing the job descriptions, AI writing the resumes, AI doing the ATS, AI even doing sometimes the first interview. And the purpose of that podcast is to find a way to cut through all of the noise today and highlight people who have either are new to career seeking or are trying to rebuild from a restructuring. And what I'm also doing is I'm also on the Education Committee for Women in High Tech, where we are trying to encourage young women to seek what opportunities might be available to them in high tech and in STEM, whether that be through engineering, data, AI, chemistry, those kinds of things.

Yeah, let's unpack both of those. First, I think educating the general public. So I have had a lot of Purdue students on here. I've had a lot of computer science. My two kids that were boilers, I am a little preferential to Purdue. I've had a couple of IU educators and I welcome IU people. But, you know, I almost look at Purdue as kind of the MIT of the Midwest, right? They've definitely at least now Daniels is back. I don't know what they're going to do. But for a while there, while Meng Cheng was there, they They were really leaning into drones, Department of DOD, AI. They definitely have some science there. And some of these kids that I get on are like, yeah, it's hard for somebody with a computer science degree to find a job. And I'm like, because you're looking in the wrong place and the people who need to hire you don't understand that.