Alumni

I always loved sociology, but never could nail down exactly where my passions and career should converge. That was until I started my graduate school career in the UNCG sociology department. I chose the criminology concentration because I enjoyed the concepts, discussions, and classes, but I wasn’t sure where I was going. When I took my first data analysis class I not only fell in love with the subject, but I finally found the cross road where my passion and career could intersect. After completing an internship doing crime data analysis for the Burlington Police in early 2021, I landed a data focused job for Krispy Kreme in their loss prevention department. This job is the perfect marriage between analyzing and interpreting data, and investigative work. We use data analytics to guide our journey through the day-to-day shop activities in hopes of identifying theft and preventing revenue loss for Krispy Kreme. Because of my time at UNCG, I can look through sociological and criminological lenses at my work to go beyond the “catch the bad guy” mentality and develop an understanding of why theft/ fraud occurs. This opens the door to understanding how we can make systematic changes to prevent theft and will hopefully lead to happier and safer employees and a thriving company. Criminology can seem like a narrow focus only suited for jobs in the criminal justice system, but the topics covered in criminology go far beyond the rigid boundaries of governmental jobs. This program opened my mind and ultimately produced a workforce employee that has a unique perspective and a burning passion for a better society.