CSUB hosts business analytics summer camp for high school students

Eight students receive hands-on programming experience through weeklong program

By California State University, Bakersfield

September 30^th, 2025

Eight students from local high schools and the Enterprise College attended a one-week program at California State University, Bakersfield this summer focused on the emerging field of business analytics.

Students were able to receive hands-on training and practice in business, marketing and agricultural analytics. They also learned how to build Shiny web apps with Posit, a leader in data science that provides cloud-based programming solutions in R, Python and more.

The camp was led by Associate Professor of Management and Marketing Dr. "Jimmy" Zhenning Xu in partnership with the Grimm Family Center for Agricultural Business (GFCAB).

“During each session, I gave the students hands-on activities based on the practical topics covered,” said Dr. Xu. “Data analytics is becoming the backbone of decision-making at all levels as we embrace more data from different sources and channels than ever before. We can help the younger generation improve their data literacy and better understand complexity using analytics and AI-assisted programming.”

Dr. Xu, along with senior students from GFCAB, guided participants through R and Python programming, coding and problem-solving in business analytics. The students primarily learned R programming, one of the most widely-used programming languages in the field today.

Students were introduced to a variety of concepts, including data integration, data visualization, data wrangling, data cleaning, forecasting, web app construction using R and R Shiny, and AI-assisted programming in R, as well as the basics of Python programming.

The summer camp was designed to help aspiring high school students build confidence in working with data and to gain experience with different data sources using cloud infrastructure.

Dr. Deborah Cours, the dean of the CSUB's College of Business and Public Administration, said that she was delighted to meet the ambitious high school and college students and to present them with their certificates of completion.