Alumni Profile: Adilene Esquinca, DPSS’23

“I had a somewhat twisty road to working in data analytics,” said Adilene Esquinca, DPSS’23. “I originally planned to go to medical school. A research internship I had at University of Illinois Chicago during high school spurred my interest in the health sector, so I decided to build up a foundation in physical and natural science skill sets by pursuing my BS in chemical engineering at MIT.” 

However, Esquinca's interests shifted during her undergraduate experience. “I had anticipated the program was going to have a lot more chemistry, but it was actually very math heavy—which I ended up enjoying quite a bit. I also realized most of the projects and research I was working on emphasized data analysis and realized having data analysis in my toolkit opened doors to many opportunities in the health sector I had not previously considered.”

After graduating from MIT, Esquinca worked in business and data analysis roles before landing her current role as Business Intelligence Engineer at Aunt Martha's Health and Wellness, a nonprofit providing low-cost healthcare services to communities in need. "I work on building out data collection and reporting interfaces as well as dashboards for data visualization and KPI tracking. I use skills in database design, business intelligence, and software development to support the overall goal of enhancing business analytics."

However, it was through a part-time job at Above and Beyond, a family recovery center, that Esquinca learned about the Data and Policy Summer Scholar (DPSS) program.

“One of the folks I worked with at Above and Beyond was Anna Weiss [DPSS’21, MPP’24]. She was participating in DPSS at the time, and over the course of our conversations it seemed a valuable growth opportunity.”

The outcomes, Esquinca said, matched her expectations. “I came into DPSS with a little bit of data experience and zero policy experience, and now I feel super confident in both skills."

Esquinca also appreciated that she could apply her DPSS skills immediately. "The policy side of DPSS reinforced that there is a human story behind data. While working on the capstone project about refugee displacement, I appreciated that the map visualizations I was learning—a super cool skill on its own—also represented a very difficult time in many people's lives. Now, at Aunt Martha's, I am more mindful of how I represent patient-focused data—especially considering the impact of any recommendations derived from it on those using our services."

Esquinca also applied her DPSS skills at Above and Beyond. “Before DPSS, I was basically just messing around in Excel, trying to produce data the team needed. Now, with R, I'm breezing through things and creating much more valuable visuals.”

DPSS social activities, Esquinca said, also were invaluable. “Students were eager to build connections, so having events solely focused on getting to know each other was important. During the in-person weekend, we took the Chicago Architecture Boat Tour, which was especially fun for me since I grew up in nearby Naperville: it’s been on my ‘to do’ list for ages.” 

However, Esquinca said the best outcome of DPSS was it showed her she could succeed in an online learning environment. “The success I found in DPSS encouraged me to enroll in an online data science master’s program at Georgia Tech. In fact, it was an alumni at one of the speaking events who encouraged me to pursue a master's degree."  

Eventually, Esquinca hopes to pivot to a role focused on machine learning applications in healthcare. "My experience thus far with statistical analysis and data visualization has given me a great foundation: I'm looking forward to the next, more technically advanced step in my career."