Jessie Zames

Jessie Zames has always had a strong foundation in numbers. With an undergraduate degree from Emory in quantitative sciences and a concentration in economics, she was well-versed in analyzing data. However, during her internship, she discovered she needed to learn the business behind those numbers. “I had a lot of the math and the theory behind all the data science topics that we go over, but I didn't really have the business acumen to go with it,” Jessie says. “In my internship, I had to work a lot with statistics and econometrics, but I didn't really have the knowledge to translate that into business solutions. I needed to have both math and business together to be successful as a data scientist in the business world.”

While many students enter the program looking to better translate business into math, Jessie is doing the opposite by looking to translate the math into business. “We are presenting the solutions to these problems like we would present to business stakeholders,” she says. “It’s learning the terminology, how to interact with businesses as a data scientist and how to speak both languages of statistics and math, and also business.”

While Jessie looks to the future and will apply the skills she has learned to her future career, she has also grown as an individual. “I'm capable of working so much harder than I originally thought,” Jessie says. “You come into the program a little nervous because you do hear the MS in Business Analytics program is super rigorous and time consuming, but with a 10-month program, they are teaching you a ton of information that you will use to go into the real world in such a short amount of time.”