The final pieces of the puzzle

sage Sackett

When Sage Sackett graduated from high school, her vision for the future included studying chemical engineering and pursuing a related career. But three years into an engineering degree, she found herself enjoying technology courses the most. And, while she loved the puzzles and problem solving involved in chemical engineering and information technology, she also discovered she wanted to be in the mix of people and planning.

Through some research, Sackett found that intersection of people and planning in the Haworth College of Business programs and met with Dr. KC Chen, professor of business information systems, to learn more about possible paths.

Sackett declared a business analytics major and one more piece of the puzzle fit into place. But, finding just the right path required more study, research and thought. So, she set out to discover all that the Haworth College of Business had to offer through the Business Prep for Transfer Students course and found her home in the college. “When I transferred to the business college, I immediately felt engaged with the content of my courses, the college and my professors and that has propelled me most toward my goals,” she says. “I am more motivated and excited for the future than ever before.”

Soon after transferring to the college of business, Dr. Chen sent her an internship opportunity in the WMU Office of Information Technology’s Project Management Office. She landed the internship and says the experience has been the most exciting part of her WMU experience.

She has worked in the office since May 2018, learning project management techniques and applying her business analytics skills.

“I am creating both a customer-facing dashboard and an interactive management tool within Microsoft Power BI, which is a very powerful visualization software,” she says. “I have spent a lot of time on this project because I am so intrigued with and continue to learn through experimentation. I have been working to make my process efficient and easy to use so that staff will not have difficulty altering the dashboard after I graduate.”

Her supervisor in the project management office says her growth while working at WMU will benefit her career. “Sage has not only gained the technical skill to develop business intelligence software to interface with an institution’s information system, but she has also learned the critical art of translating an institution’s strategic information needs into an end product that is consumable by non-technical stakeholders,” says Adam Newsted, WMU director of project management.

Sackett’s busy schedule of study, work and participating in business competitions is her priority. But with graduation nearing, she has one more piece of the puzzle to fit—completing the project management certification essential to her career goals, Certified Associate in Project Management from the Project Management Institute. “When my certification is complete, I will seek a project management or business analytics position in a manufacturing company.”

But the puzzle won’t be complete until her knowledge, career goals and personal desire to impact society all fit together. “Eventually, I want to manage sustainability-forward projects or create ways to test the effectiveness of different sustainability initiatives by setting up automated sensors and other tests,” she says. “Either way, I want a career that will help make the world a better place and will allow me to use my critical thinking, technical and communication skills to make that happen.”