Congratulations to Nikola Todorov for being honored as an intern ranked as excellent for his work in LAS 101! LAS 101 is a freshman seminar that is led by accomplished junior and senior interns. These interns run their own class sections and serve as peer mentors. Congratulations to Nikola on a job well done! A brief statement by Nikola is given below:

My name is Nikola Todorov and I'm a junior studying Statistics and Economics. I'm from Schaumburg, IL and attended James B. Conant High School, which is where my interest in statistics began to solidify. 

For as long as I can remember, math has always been my strong point. There’s just something about the applicable and intuitive nature of mathematics that makes it one of the  driving forces behind all the innovation we see today.

I came to the University of Illinois as an undeclared student and originally wanted to study computer science. My love for math, however, quickly turned into a passion for statistics once I took my first course in STAT 200. Immediately drawn in by the concept of statistics, I appreciated the way statistics uses numbers and data to explain the world. Additionally, statistics crafts a story in an objective and unambiguous way that makes it extremely useful to almost every business operation. I believe that is why data science is on the forefront of technological innovation today.

My statistics curriculum has also led me to pursue additional opportunities on campus, including my current role as a data analytics intern at Caterpillar in Research Park. Additionally, I’m extremely excited to begin my role as a Credit and Capital Management intern at Synchrony Financial this summer!

I'm beyond grateful for the experience and opportunities that Statistics at UIUC has brought me thus far, and I can't wait to see what the rest of my time here on campus has in store for me!