What year are you?

I’m a junior. I just transferred from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Honestly, I always wanted to go here. It was between here and Spellman. And so, since I had the opportunity to transfer, it’s kind of like I’m getting the best of both worlds.

What are you studying at UNCW?

I am studying statistics with a minor in psychology.

Why did you choose statistics?

I love it when people ask me this question! Okay, so, actually, I was a psychology major at Spelman College. Then, I took a statistics and psychology class and just fell in love with statistics. I love how statisticians are able to create a story with the numbers and everything, so I was like, “That’s what I want to do!”

I like the mystery and the calculations you have to do in order to get to a desired goal. So, when I transferred to UNCW, I saw an opportunity to be able to major in what I truly loved. I chose to minor in psychology because I believe statistics allows you—it shows you how to do the calculations, but psychology shows you how to communicate that to people who don’t know how to do the calculations and stuff.

Do the two majors complement each other?
Basically, yeah. You have to know how to talk to people and you have to know how to do the calculations, so when you merge it together you have statistics and psychology.

What do you think you might want to do when you get out of college?
Well, I recently interned at Dell over the summer in Austin, Texas, so that was absolutely amazing. Honestly, I’m definitely considering working there. But, there are definitely other companies that I have my eye on, like SAS [a developer of analytics software] in Carey, North Carolina, Proctor and Gamble, anything like that. I don’t really have a particular place where I want to go, but as long as I can use my gifts and my passion for statistics to help other people, or help solve different issues in the world, I’m perfectly fine. Anywhere is fine as long as I get to do what I love.

Are you involved in any extracurriculars?

Yes. I am a part of the Mathematics and Statistics Club. I also attend Overflow, which is the campus ministry at UNCW that’s partnering with Port City Community Church. That’s it for now. Honestly, statistics is taking up a lot of my time, but I definitely do want to do more. If I had to choose more, I would definitely want to join a community service organization and things like that, because I definitely have a passion for serving others as well.

Have you done a lot of community service in the past?

Yes. Actually, at my previous institution, I was a lead intern at Vertical Church, which was a church on campus. My sole role there was basically to plan community service projects. I was the one who got people hyped about serving the community and trying to get people out and show them how cool it is to help people with the gifts that you have.

I’ve been doing community service since—I want to say like, middle school. I really like working with the elderly community. I love working with youth and young adults as well, so any type of community service, I love it.

It sounds like you’re really liking your major. Do I have that right?

Yes. Like I said, this is my first semester here at UNCW, and when I saw that I could actually major in statistics, I was so excited. It’s a lot of work. I have to take a lot of statistic courses in order to graduate on time. However, since it’s in the field that I love, it doesn’t feel like studying. It just feels like—I honestly have fun. That sounds kind of nerdy, but I have a lot of fun studying for the exams and talking to other people about statistics.

Honestly, once you really understand what goes into statistics, it’s actually really interesting, because you’re able to
understand with businesses and companies, and when individuals talk about percentages and all this different stuff. You can actually calculate it yourself to see if what they’re saying is actually true, and how it impacts you and other people.

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