Whitman Scholar Finds Passion in Business Analytics

When Kendall Blincoe ’24 came to Syracuse University, she knew she wanted to study business, she just wasn’t sure what her focus would be. That question was answered with Introduction to Business Analytics taught by Kivanc Avrenli. “He is so dynamic in the way that he teaches, that immediately grabbed my interest,” she says. “I had never even thought about that kind of major or used programming languages. I didn’t know if I could do it.”

In her second year, Blincoe participated in the Whitman School’s Business Analytics Career Center Exploration trip to New York City, an experience that solidified her choice of major. “I got to see business analytics in action in different companies and how it's such a growing field,” she says.

Her visit to Scholastic left the biggest imprint. “They collect data from all the different schools that run their Scholastic book fairs, information such as what books are selling, where they are selling and districts where not a lot is happening. Then they take that data and try to create programming to promote children’s literacy in school districts with lower activity levels.”

Blincoe was inspired by the use of data to help fulfill a mission. “I saw that the business analytics role is not just sitting behind a computer screen, but using data to help drive decision making that can make a real impact,” she says. “I want to do that.”

Blincoe has not only excelled in the classroom—she has a nearly perfect GPA—but has managed to round out her college experience with a full range of extracurriculars. She’s served as an Orientation leader, a peer leader for the First Year Seminar class, sings in an a cappella group and was an undergraduate research assistant.

Through the Whitman School, she has participated in the Goodman Leaders Academy and the Panasci Local Leadership Initiative, served as a Microsoft Excel tutor and did a strategic sales and business analytics internship at Dupli Envelope and Graphics in Syracuse. And she managed to do it all in only three years.

In her final semester, Blincoe was named a Whitman Scholar, an honor given to only 13 graduating seniors each year in recognition of academic achievement, engagement and leadership at Syracuse University.

“Over the last three years, I have found my passions in and out of the classroom and have been pushed to grow each and every day,” says Blincoe, who hopes to secure a business analytics position in Syracuse. “None of this would be possible without the unwavering support of the faculty, staff, peers and family that surround me.” 

—Renée Gearhart Levy