It’s hard not to root for Cole Gulledge ’20 (M.S. ’21).
In five years, this standout Cougar earned an undergraduate degree in economics and a mathematics minor, started 30 games for the men’s soccer team, was nominated for the Colonial Athletic Association’s Leadership and Sport Excellence Award and – in a final year’s sprint – capped his College of Charleston experience with a master’s degree in data science and analytics.
It is no surprise, then, that this well-rounded 24-year-old has already found rewarding work as a technical associate/junior development and operations engineer at financial services powerhouse TIAA (formerly TIAA-CREF): the perfect merging of his economics and data science degrees.
It was economics professor Mark Witte who first introduced Gulledge to data science in a special topics class on sports econometrics.
“Dr. Witte took an interest in me and provided great advice – he pushed me to take Introduction to Data Science as a junior,” says the easygoing native of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, who is quick to give humble shoutouts not just to his professors who inspired and mentored him at the College, but to his older sister Sam Gulledge ’15 and his extended family of coaches and teammates, as well. “That was my first data science course, and from there, I just caught the bug.”
Cole Gulledge started 30 games for the men’s soccer team.
But, between his economics and mathematics coursework and his soccer, Gulledge had limited time to explore this new interest before it was time to graduate.
As COVID-19 impacted the arc of his academic career, Gulledge had to make some big decisions. The economy was shaky, and he wasn’t confident it was the right time to enter the workforce. And so, when the NCAA offered an extra year of play eligibility for student-athletes whose collegiate careers were interrupted by the pandemic, Gulledge was thrilled: Not only could he continue playing soccer at the College, he could begin a new academic challenge there, too.
And, with its research opportunities, internships and smaller class sizes, the <…….
Source: https://today.cofc.edu/2022/01/12/soccer-alumnus-finds-career-win-with-data-science/