Izzy Bennett started college without a clear plan, and that turned out to be a good thing.

During her senior year of high school, she had taken AP Statistics with a teacher who encouraged her to lean into the subject, showing her that statistics could open doors even if she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do yet. 

Majoring in statistics at the University of South Carolina gave her room to explore many options. She flexed her statistics skills doing research with faculty across the university and in two internships. She grew in confidence and gained a better sense of the wide variety statistics can lead to. 

As she prepares to pursue a master’s degree in statistics and data science at Clemson University, she again faces a future with many variables, and she’s okay with that. 

“I’m honestly still not entirely clear on what direction I plan to take my career,” she says. “But I know I love learning about and using statistics to interact with the world around me, and I plan to carry that into my future.” 

Hear from Izzy how she plans to use what she learned in the statistics major to plot her future.  

How did taking on internships, research and other experiences outside the classroom shape your goals? 

When I started as a statistics major, my goal was to explore what opportunities were available and how statistics is used. I can confidently say the applications are much wider than I understood at the beginning. I worked as a research assistant for a biostatistician in the College of Nursing, completed two internships in insurance and regulated utilities, and conducted research under faculty in the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management. These experiences gave me research and work experience and helped shape my current goal of becoming a statistician and continuing research throughout my career. 

What has been the most meaningful part of your college experience? 

One of my most meaningful memories was attending my first academic conference junior year. I had the opportunity to present research with my professor and interact with both academics and industry professionals. It showed me how statistics is being used outside of academia and where the field is heading, especially with the rise of AI. 

What connections do you see between your major and what you’ll be doing next? 

My statistics major and mathematics minor built the foundation for my understanding of statistics and allowed me to explore its applications across many different problems. Undergrad gave me time to explore different areas and careers, and it helped me develop the confidence to pursue graduate study.  

What skills did you gain from your major that you didn’t expect? 

I didn’t expect to learn as much coding as I did, or that I would learn multiple programming languages. To clean and visualize data, you need to understand data structures and know how to code in a way that makes the data usable for analysis. I also had to learn how to market my skillset in a variety of fields to gain employment and research opportunities. 

What are you most looking forward to after graduation? 

After graduation I’m planning to travel. I’m excited to spend some time abroad and explore a new continent. I’ll be traveling to Australia with my boyfriend for a month. We plan on visiting his family in Cairnes, seeing the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru and visiting Sydney for a week.