When applying to universities, seeing snow each winter was one of Maureen O’Donnell’s requirements. After touring Appalachian State University, it felt like the right fit.
O’Donnell graduated from Appalachian with a Mathematics (BS) - Statistics degree in 2014. She now works for InterWorks, Inc. as an analytics consultant.
In this role, O’Donnell travels to various companies to train employees on the data visualization tool Tableau. She also advises clients through dashboard consulting and works with analytics in predictive modeling, market basket analysis and sentiment analysis.
“I love that I have the ability to travel some place new every week. I’ve been to New York City, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Costa Rica all within the past six months,” O’Donnell said about her job.
O’Donnell advises students interested in mathematics to choose Appalachian because of the mathematics faculty and the high caliber of the program.
“The math department at Appalachian was my home away from home. It’s a cliché, but they really became my family. They pushed me to be the best that I could be and they always showed an interest in my life outside of math,” O’Donnell said.
O’Donnell said that the independence afforded to her during her time at Appalachian allowed her to choose her own path in statistics and helped prepare her for her career.
“The math department at Appalachian is the best math program out there. You can get a math degree anywhere, but Appalachian is the only place where you’ll gain a family while studying. You can take graduate courses as an undergrad and study with some of the brightest minds in the state.
“Appalachian might not be an Ivy League school, but from my experience so far, we are a well-known university and our reputation precedes us,” O’Donnell said.
“Appalachian might not be an Ivy League school, but from my experience so far, we are a well-known university and our reputation precedes us.”
