Steffani Gomez hadn’t seen her grandmother from Venezuela in years, but that changed when Gomez graduated with an MSBA degree this May. To ensure that even the most distant of relatives can attend commencement ceremonies, Wake Forest provides visa support to far-flung family members of graduating students like Gomez, a high-achieving first-generation student with a promising future.

Gomez came to Wake Forest directly from Brown University with a freshly minted computer science degree. “My undergraduate career was very technical and very academic,” she said, “but I craved a practical understanding of analytics and how analytics is used in companies across the world.”

The school’s commitment to ethics also impressed Gomez. “With my undergraduate degree, I saw first-hand how important data privacy and ethics are from a software perspective,” she said, “but I found that these issues are rarely discussed outside of computer science. I was very happy to find that at Wake Forest there was not only a class on ethics in analytics, but that ethics was also a tenet of the program.”

Gomez also appreciated the practical experience and real-world coursework at the core of the MSBA curriculum at Wake Forest. “One of the highlights for me was participating in a competition at Inmar and getting the chance to do analytics on a real-world dataset provided by Lowes Food,” she said.

After graduation, Gomez will join the advanced analytics team within the consumer insights department at Retail Business Services, a subsidiary of international food retailer Ahold Delhaize. “I absolutely love exploring and learning new things. I am excited to be able to do analytics in a real-world setting and see the impact of my work.”

She credited the Market Readiness & Employment team for helping her find the perfect first step in her career, but she was quick to point out how supported she felt throughout the program. “The administration is very caring and committed to helping students be the best person they can be, not just the best professional,” she said.