Host Shawn Patrick Higgins edits the interview between Justine Chavez-Crespin and Evan Shieh, Executive Director of the Young Data Scientist League, whose work centers on data justice and critical AI literacy. Evan shares how his organization’s Data Is Power program puts students from underrepresented communities in the driver’s seat on AI ethics — analyzing bias in language models, studying unequal tech access, and presenting findings at international conferences. He reflects on his own path into CS, from feeling like an outsider in college to building machine learning models during ACL rehab, and makes the case that the most important skills in the AI era aren’t advanced math or coding — they’re curiosity, interdisciplinary thinking, and the ability to connect technical work to real human communities.