One of the most appealing aspects of statistics for me was the realization that I could apply analytics and statistical learnings to just about any area of interest—finance, insurance, health, or sports, to name a few. Through my statistics courses at Illinois, I gained a solid understanding of core statistical theory as well as the tools needed to apply that theory to real-world business problems across a wide variety of applications. This not only broadened my knowledge of statistics, but also it helped me discover what my interests were with relation to statistical methods and applications.

The continuity in pursuing both my undergraduate and graduate degrees at Illinois enabled me to explore a wider variety of statistics-related courses and projects. In some instances, this even meant expanding and identifying opportunities outside the statistics department, such as completing a labor economics independent study modeling project and taking an engineering course in experimental design. Little did I know that the experimental design course would spark a newfound interest and lead me to the role I have now designing and analyzing business experiments at State Farm.

While pursuing my master’s degree, I spent five semesters in State Farm’s MAGNet internship program. In MAGNet, I obtained real-world job experience, developed my technical and professional skills, and learned a tremendous amount from the community of mentors and fellow interns in the program.

Not only did I work with the other interns in my cohort, but we often took the same courses, giving us opportunities to study together and learn from each other in the classroom as well. All in all, the MAGNet experience complemented my education and prepared me to hit the ground running once I graduated and took on a full-time role at State Farm.

'12 – BS in Statistics and Economics
'14 – MS in Statistics