Ghana-Early Fall 2015: Qualitative Research

One of the first interview after college, hiring manger asked me “Where do you see yourself in 5 year?” Deep inside, I knew the answer: Not SALES but I also needed a job… so what do I say? “If there will be an opportunity for advancement in the future, I would like to be able to work as a manager.” I went to several Sales interview hoping to land a full-time position after college but was never satisfied; My heart was always set in doing research.
I became interested in research through my study abroad in Ghana- Early Fall 2015 where I had the opportunity to conduct Qualitative research for the first time. There, I researched on “Would an implementation of technology based solution help educational development in remote regions of Southern

So, I picked this topic with the sense of comparing the educational sectors of Ghana and Nepal; I wanted to find the similarities and differences in the school system. My goal was to understand if studying the education system in Ghana will help me understand education in Nepal as well and if technology is the answer to educational development? During the process, I interviewed many young adults, teachers and families as well. With the help of classes in different disciplines throughout my undergraduate year, I connected with my interviewees and gained valuable information that were not found through internet research. When asked about implementing technology in schools, everyone was very excited and positive, however, soon I realized that some part of Ghana didn’t have the basic needs such as electricity and sufficient resources to support my question of interest. I began to understand that, even upon presenting advanced solutions, this project would be unsustainable and costly for the community members. The experience I gained from the program enabled me to understand the isolation of technology development in developing nation. Therefore, upon returning to University, I focused on

I enrolled myself in Data Analytics with Excel online course on Springboard and started learning R program on Datacamp.com. Every week, I dedicated 15 hours of my time on both courses simultaneously. After recently completing my Data Analytics course on Excel, I started to seek out for more formal educational program in Data Science. Upon several online research and reaching out to Admission assistant, I became assured that the Data Science Certification Program at Indiana University Bloomington is the best fit for me. What attracts me to this program is the flexible online option with the same quality of rigorous course work as Master’s program and the opportunity to transition to full time Master’s student in future. If given the opportunity, I would like to pursue the Decision-Maker Path of the Data Science program through Masters of Science in Data Science – Hybrid program upon completing the certification program to be well equipped to transition into Research Data Analyst role. I am excited to take classes in ILS Z637 Information Visualization and SPEA V506 Statistical Analysis for Effective Decision-Making as it will be a huge addition to my skill set to communicate effectively though visually engaging methods with the individual/ groups of an organization. While my social science background has helped, me understand qualitative research methods, the strong