Graduate Student Spotlight | Haley Greene

"I think everyone should have a basic understanding of business analytics because whatever field you are in, you will need to be able to make some kind of organizational plan."

Haley Greene, MBA

Program

Business Administration (MBA)

Department

The George B. Delaplaine Jr. School of Business

Graduate School
Graduate Student

Business
Business Graduate Programs
Graduate School
Graduate Student

04/17/2024

Haley Greene is a current graduate student in Hood College’s Master of Business Administration program. Greene is currently involved in the MBA program’s MGMT 550 course, which focuses on business analytics and data science for managers. In this course, students delve into key mathematical concepts, such as algebra, basic calculus, differentiation, vectors, matrices and linear programming, while simultaneously exploring foundational statistical methods. The course emphasizes the practical application of these concepts and techniques in managerial decision-making processes across various fields, equipping managers with the skills to effectively analyze data and make informed decisions.

Please provide a brief bio including your educational and career background.

I grew up in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and moved to Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, when I was a sophomore in high school. I graduated from Shepherd University in 2015 with a B.S. in Strategic Communication with a minor in English. I worked for a physical therapist office right out of college and then worked for a year and a half as the communications coordinator for a country club outside of Baltimore. After that, I detoured a little and worked for a retirement community in their closed-circuit TV station as a production coordinator. We would do a studio show every morning, like the Today Show, and I would have to host and pitch stories and film projects around the campus.

When I decided to go back to school to get certified in digital marketing, I worked part-time as a marketing coordinator and teacher for a theatre nonprofit before going back to work in hospitality in the sales department of a hotel. After the pandemic, hospitality jobs were hard to come by, so I went back to retirement community life and worked there as the main receptionist before coming to Hood!

Why did you choose to work at Hood College and enroll in the business administration program?

One of the biggest benefits of working at Hood is the tuition benefit for graduate school programs. I always wanted an MBA but knew it would be impossible financially. When I looked into the tuition benefits here and saw that it was a possibility, I of course wanted to take advantage.

It’s an incredible opportunity. I also work for the Delaplaine School of Business as one of the academic departments I support in faculty services, so it was super convenient to go to them with my questions or fears when I was applying. That was a major help as well.

What was your experience like in the MGMT 550 class?

I enjoyed the MGMT 550 class! It was very different from anything I had done in undergrad. My only experience with Microsoft Excel was to use it to organize data for myself, and I did not know how to do anything else.

Professor Gurzick taught us ways to use Excel to help look at different data sets and analyze what the numbers mean and how you can then build a business plan around the data sets that you are seeing. Because it was asynchronous, I really had to stay on top of the lessons and stay organized so I could follow along with what that week’s focus was.

Gurzick is very knowledgeable when it comes to business analytics and never made me feel like I couldn’t solve something. He walked me through how to do it and even went a step further to show me how what I’m learning will be used in other MBA courses, which was really cool. Plus, he makes excellent dad jokes!

How do you think taking a business analytics class will help you in your career?

I think everyone should have a basic understanding of business analytics because whatever field you are in, you will need to be able to make some kind of organizational plan.

If you are like me and math isn’t really your forte, you still need to be able to know what numbers mean, even if you don’t quite know how to find them yourself. Once you understand the meaning behind the numbers (data), you will be able to make informed decisions to move your team forward whether that be in business or any other field.

For students who are interested in taking MGMT 550, what advice would you give them?

For many of the lessons, Gurzick would give a lecture video and then an instructional to accompany the lesson, where he walks you through how to do the problem in Excel.

My advice to students would be to watch his instructional videos multiple times to make sure you really understand it when it comes to exam time. I would often watch his videos while also having Excel pulled up, and I would practice alongside him as he was doing it in the video, then I would pause and rewind to make sure there wasn’t anything I missed or if my numbers seemed off.

It is definitely a course that you will need to be visually attentive to so that nothing is missed. If one thing is off in the process, your whole data set will be skewed, and you will have to start over so make sure you watch closely what you are doing. Also, brush up on your mean, median and mode skills. That will come back in full force in this course!

Inspired by Haley’s story and ready to #GOFURTHER in your career? Learn about Hood’s graduate programs, including the MBA program and our focus in data analytics and artificial intelligence, by clicking here.