Certificate Program SOP (Data science and analytics)

[maryjoe]

Hello All I am looking to apply for a grad certificate program and could use some help on my SOP.  I am not the best writer so please help with grammatical errors as well as substance issues or flow. more quantitative details anything to make this better I know it isnt very good.  please do not hold back.  I did this with information i received on the web about how to even start this so this would be the first round of editing. also if you can help within 24 hours it would be greatly appreciated I just decided to do this program because I dont think Im ready to apply for the full MS program and this certificate will allow me to take some classes without the full commitment just yet.  the deadline is near.  my writing is below:

 

I was always that child that asked why.  Naturally most kids are inquisitive but I believe I was a little more than the regular child when it came to questions.  I carried that natural questioning behavior from childhood up until my junior year of college.  It was my junior year of college that I realized I had been going through the motions of university but had yet to find my passion and what I truly wanted to do with my life.  This sudden uncertainty made me question what it was that I was even doing in a business program and it showed in my grades that year.  That year was probably the most interesting of my university years because it forced me to really think about what I wanted to do with my life after graduation.  During that year I studied abroad and I was able to figure out what it was that I truly wanted to do and what I was really passionate about.  I wanted to help people although I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to help people.   I often volunteered and interned for non-profit organizations that centered on children in underserved communities and realized I came alive in those environments.  After my new found passion I decided that helping people through the lens of information technology and business would be most beneficial because it allowed me to make organizations the most efficient they can be to ultimately help children. 

After I returned from study abroad my new sense direction really allowed me to flourish academically and I performed the best out of all my 4 years in my final year of college.  But it was during my second semester of my senior year when I took the course Business Process and Requirements Analysis and fell in love.  I was absolutely intrigued with the idea of there being so many problems and I could be the one to solve some of them.  This course gave me the opportunity to think about issues organizations have; problems they didn’t even know they had and being the individual to point out inefficiencies and creating a system that would make the organization better and ultimately the lives of children.  The methodological steps from requirements gathering to system creation were fascinating and it was from that class that I knew what career I wanted to pursue.  It was also during this semester that Professor Espinosa who taught Business Process and Requirements Analysis highly suggested I look into Big Data as a career choice since he noticed my interest to figure out problems during his class. 

Soon after graduation, I started my career at the International Monetary Fund in the “Technology and General services department.”  Starting as a systems analyst, I was able to identify that the various international satellite offices lacked the ability to communicate with each other in a quick manner.  This need that I recognized allowed me to create a system for the 180 regional offices to efficiently and effectively transmit messages to one another in the case of a regional emergency.  I left the International Monetary fund to be more focused on data and how that information can synthesized and made useful organizations.  My time at both the Futures Industry Association Technical Services and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP allowed me to hone my analytical skills and increase my technical capabilities through the constant use of SQL and MS Excel usage.  As a data analyst I constantly ran in to issues where information was inaccurate and slow to come in.  It was in these moments I knew there had to be other ways to be normalize information and create better outputs through the use of statistical analysis.  My previous experience has given me the opportunity to practice basic data analysis skills and project management by working in Excel, SQL, light Python programming as well as obtain the certification of Certified Associate in Project Management.  The DSBA certificate will allow me to increase my technical knowhow by learning not just to collect and manipulate data but to thoroughly understand data from a business aspect and be able to help prospective organizations to make predictions while simultaneously providing an environment of efficiency and accuracy.

The past three years working as a systems and data analyst really put in to perspective what I really want to do with my career long term.  My desire to improve operational efficiency and to better utilize non-profits limited resources through the use of analytics is strongest now than ever before. 

It is very well known that Charlotte is a hub for various industries including financial, energy, and healthcare but for me the opportunity to serve some of the city’s most vulnerable is why this program is my top choice. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte graduate certificate in Data Science and Business Analytics certificate program is the perfect blend of business analytics and data science which will allow me to learn how to create change by transforming organization insights from mundane data analysis into tangible resources for decision making while being able to realize the opportunity in the data by creating algorithms to support numerous decision-making processes.  In particular I am most interested in learning about how to translate analytics and data science into societal usefulness.  Both Dr. Beth Bjerregarrd and Dr. Michael Turner are incredibly interesting faculty members because their backgrounds and areas of focus aren’t strictly information science but social science.  Their abilities to integrate the two to inspire me that it is possible to have analytics applicable to serve the world in more than just a quantitative dollars and cents manner.  Post DSBA certification I plan on applying to the DSBA Master’s Degree program to further my educational knowledge and dive deeper into the intersection of technical data science and functional business analytics. 

Overall, the DSBA certificate program would not only develop my overall education experience but also provide me with a vital opportunity to equip myself with the technical and functional tools to be a resource to non-profit organizations.  The program would support me to materialize my career goals and aspirations.  I strongly believe that with my analytical and volunteer experience, I would add significant value and a differing perspective to this program.