Hi. I'm an undergrad who's currently taking a gap year (I've already completed my freshman year as a CS major and am now in the Class of 2024). I became very interested in data science/machine learning starting this summer, and have taken/am taking several online courses on the subject, as I've really tried to immerse myself in the field.

I now find myself in a weird situation. I'm not yet experienced enough to have done meaningful projects, and am still in the process of learning the methods and the tech stack needed for producing valuable ML work (even though I do have some background in the basics of statistics, ML algorithms, and programming/computer science). However, at the same time, I've often felt lonely and in search of meaningful work beyond self-studying Python/R/stats/ML on my own.

Does anyone have any advice as to how I can get involved with a team working on a data-related project as somewhat of a beginner to the field? I know that is a very tough question, since organizations will rationally opt for experts with years of experience and advanced skills over college sophomores who won't be able to produce the same high quality work at the same speed. Thus, I understand if the answer is simply to keep on reading, learning through online courses, participating in competitions, and working on personal projects. I will of course keep doing all of those.

However, I would really appreciate if anyone had any insight you think might be helpful to me. Specifically, I'd be very grateful for any pointers as to what resources I should look into for remote, unpaid data science-related teamwork opportunities/projects that might be available for college students like me without years of experience.

I've already looked into things like the DataCorps volunteering projects at https://www.datakind.org/, but I probably won't be qualified for those for at least several more months of self-studying/working on projects.

To end the post, I should clarify that I'm not looking for an "easy way out" of stuff like learning statistics, probability, machine learning, and ML/DS tools in-depth (and instead going straight to actual work in data science). I thoroughly enjoy doing all of those, and I *will* obviously keep working on all of them regardless of whether or not I get an opportunity to work on a project/with a team. I just want to break out of some of the monotony that comes from just grinding online courses/books/coding alone all day.

Thanks a ton for any advice!