While at Valpo, I double majored in economics and mathematics with a minor in statistics. Since graduating from Valpo in 2016, I got a M.S. in biostatistics from Indiana University. After receiving my master\u2019s degree, I moved to Metro Detroit to start my career in the health insurance industry. In April 2021, I started a remote position at BCBS of MN as senior risk adjustment analyst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My experience with the economics department has helped me navigate to my professional career. Throughout the job search process, I found jobs that utilized my biostatistics but also economics degrees and utilized SAS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The courses that I took in the economics department taught me how to look at the world with an analytical mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Econometrics was the first course I took that sparked my interest in what statistics can do and it really catapulted me into finding my niche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Economics of Race and Gender has helped me throughout my career to understand the fundamentals of disparities and the Social Determinants of Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Applied Data Science is the course that prepared me most for what working in analytics looks like daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take all the programming classes that are available, I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to take a multitude of SAS classes while at Valpo. The skills I learned while at Valpo I have used every day throughout furthering my education and my career thus far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bachelor’s in Economics Hannah Asgharifard \u201816 What have you been doing since you graduated from Valparaiso University? While at Valpo, I double majored in economics and mathematics with a minor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16,24,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-spotlight","category-economics","category-economics-alumni-spotlight"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"nicholaswhipple","author_link":"https:\/\/staging.valpo.edu\/college-of-arts-and-sciences\/author\/nicholaswhipple\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/staging.valpo.edu\/college-of-arts-and-sciences\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/IMG_8194__01-252x300-1.webp","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Alumni Spotlight<\/a>","Economics<\/a>","Economics Alumni Spotlight<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Alumni Spotlight<\/span>","Economics<\/span>","Economics Alumni Spotlight<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 9 months ago","modified":"Updated 9 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on July 23, 2025","modified":"Updated on July 24, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on July 23, 2025 6:13 pm","modified":"Updated on July 24, 2025 7:56 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.valpo.edu\/college-of-arts-and-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.valpo.edu\/college-of-arts-and-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.valpo.edu\/college-of-arts-and-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.valpo.edu\/college-of-arts-and-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.valpo.edu\/college-of-arts-and-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2358"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.valpo.edu\/college-of-arts-and-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2361,"href":"https:\/\/staging.valpo.edu\/college-of-arts-and-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358\/revisions\/2361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.valpo.edu\/college-of-arts-and-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.valpo.edu\/college-of-arts-and-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.valpo.edu\/college-of-arts-and-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.valpo.edu\/college-of-arts-and-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}