2U Inc.
11/01/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/01/2024 08:14
From Teacher to Student: How the Harvard Business Analytics Program Helped One Graduate Elevate His Own Classroom Practice
A Change of Plans, Made Easy
When he started HBAP in April 2019, Itauma was a technical program facilitator of data analytics and data science at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). He initially enrolled in a full-time cohort, intending to finish the program in nine months and then apply his learnings toward more intensive curriculum-building back at SNHU. Ironically, after completing HBAP's Leadership, Innovation, and Changecourse, Itauma realized he needed a change of his own-"a personal renewal, a mind shift," he calls it, "to make sure what I was doing professionally was still aligned with my passions. So everything that I learned from the course, I was able to apply toward my personal growth."
He departed SNHU and transitioned to become a part-time student in HBAP, choosing to complete the program in 18 months instead of the original nine. "The switch was easy," he says assuringly. "Every student is assigned a student success advisor, and they're called that for a reason-because they want every student to succeed. Mine was very understanding and helpful; I called them up, and they walked me exactly through what I needed to do. It was not a difficult process; the key was communication."
Opportunities to Struggle and Shine
Itauma excelled in courses that played to his strengths and experience in quantitative analysis and computer programming. HBAP also challenged him in areas outside of his comfort zone, "especially courses that incorporated marketing or finance," he says. "Those spots are not really my terrain, but the case studies that required us to dig into anything related to money, pushed me in a good way."
The program's emphasis on collaborative projects also energized Itauma: "We had just completed our Data-Driven Marketingcourse," he remembers, "and my team was looking for a project related to something current that would put our skills to the test. The pandemic had just hit, so we decided to create a global Coronavirus tracking app, incorporating data tables that provided information on COVID cases in different parts of the world using an interactive dashboard. A year later, we're still looking for ways to extend the app and keep improving on it, bringing new ideas and analytics into it, since the pandemic rages on."
"Another project I found exciting was the Global Supply Chain Management Simulationexercise in our Operations and Supply Chain Managementcourse," Itauma continues. "Through this web-based simulation, my teammate and I created a global supply chain to deliver mobile phones over a four-year period, making decisions on customers, suppliers, product design, etc. along the way. Our goal was to balance customer priorities with supplier variables to create a flexible mechanism that could react quickly to unexpected factors-for example, a vote of 'no confidence' from the company's board-and still remain profitable. That's one aspect to the power of data analytics: You can use it to build processes that can predict and respond to real-world situations in real time!"
By the end of the simulation, Itauma and his partner netted the company $48 million in profit and won an award for excellence out of about 30 other fellow HBAP students.