From student ambassador to valued analyst

Standing on the auditorium stage, graduate student Jenny Ferrell looked out at about 200 people from all over the world who had come to hear about her research. It was by far the biggest audience she had ever had for a paper presentation.

But this was not the usual academic convention where, maybe, 25 people come to a paper session to hear colleagues discuss their latest research projects.

This was SAS Global Forum, the annual international conference for SAS users, and Ferrell was a SAS Student Ambassador. As a biostatistics master’s student at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, she had traveled to San Francisco in March 2006 to share her research using SAS to explore the benefits of physical rehabilitation in cardiopulmonary patients.

Was she intimidated by the big audience? Not a bit. Ferrell loves a good conference.

“I like going to conferences and talking about research. It energizes me,” says Ferrell, now a doctoral student in computer engineering and computer science at the University of Louisville.

A path to recognition and confidence
Ferrell entered the competition to become a SAS Student Ambassador, hoping to take part in the networking and exchange of ideas at SAS Global Forum.

SAS Student Ambassadors get to present their research projects to a diverse audience. SAS pays the students’ travel and registration expenses to attend the convention, and honors them for their contributions to their disciplines.

Along with the recognition that came with presenting research at a major conference, Ferrell got a confidence boost from her selection as a SAS Student Ambassador. “It told me that if SAS thinks I’m good enough to be a student ambassador, then I should feel confident about my abilities.”

At SAS Global Forum, she appreciated the chance to learn about the variety of analytical methods people are using in such fields as science, healthcare and economics – and she liked meeting other young researchers.

Ferrell would highly recommend the SAS Student Ambassador experience to other students.

“I walked away from the conference with a lot of different ideas and techniques. I also got a lot of good feedback on my own research,” Ferrell says.

Studying and applying analytics
Ferrell first used SAS software for data mining and statistical analysis while working on research with a math professor in the summer of 2003.

“Once I tried it, I thought it was the coolest thing!” Ferrell says.

The software enables her to explore relationships among data, which is exactly what she needs for her research focusing on quality-of-life issues for medical patients, Ferrell says.

For example, her dissertation uses data mining to study “sequential episode grouping” for healthcare.

The research examines the impacts of grouping a patient’s medical conditions together, as opposed to considering each condition separately. Grouping a patient’s medical conditions could help a doctor determine the best outcome and treatment for a patient and help healthcare companies predict costs better.

“Data mining opens up the world of possibilities in research because you don’t go in with preconceived notions. It allows you to see so many different things that the data is telling you,” Ferrell says.

Learning SAS also opened up a whole host of career opportunities for Ferrell, who already knew that teaching was not for her. She discovered that many companies use the software and need analysts who can use it, including the large healthcare provider she works for now.

Bringing SAS® to the office
When Ferrell interviewed for her current job, she told the hiring manager she needed one essential thing to do the job right: SAS.

She got the job. She got the SAS software. And she taught a co-worker to use SAS.

That co-worker later taught another, and now the number of users on Ferrell’s six-person Performance and Productivity Team has grown from zero to three – all in less than a year.

Using the software has boosted the productivity of her group, as she knew it would.

“I believe in SAS. I’ve seen the power it has,” says Ferrell. “I knew I wouldn’t have to worry if I used SAS. If I had used another program, I don’t know if I could trust it.”

She expects the number of SAS users in her group to continue to grow and her future at this company to hold more innovative applications of the analytical skills she began cultivating as a graduate student.

“It’s exciting. We’re beginning some very rich data mining projects right now,” Ferrell says.