Charting a new path

Numbers have always been Jonathan Boateng’s “thing.”

It’s what led him to major in accounting in his home country of Ghana. After earning his bachelor’s degree, he landed a role as a junior accountant at an insurance brokerage. But Jonathan knew that to level up his career, he’d need to further his education.

He enrolled in the MBA program in accounting and finance at the University of Professional Studies in Accra, Ghana—a move that helped him secure a role as a finance assistant at Ghana International School.

Amidst all this, he also completed the final level of the ICAG (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ghana) qualification.

Clearly, Jonathan is well-qualified for success. But he wanted more.

No coding background? No problem

The idea of pursuing yet another degree was planted in Jonathan’s mind by his boss at Ghana International School. She was always pushing for analytics, asking him to dig into the trends and explain what the numbers were saying.

“I was mostly using Excel to do the analysis. Then I started to think—why don’t I get a business analytics degree so I can learn to use other tools or programming languages?”

At first, Jonathan looked into master’s programs in business analytics across Europe. But then, a friend told him about a tiny dot in the middle of a map of the U.S. —a  place called Iowa and the Tippie College of Business’s Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) program.

“I asked him, ‘I’m thinking about going into this program. What’s your advice?’ I didn’t have any coding background. I couldn’t even execute a single line of code.”

But his friend told him not to worry. Tippie had it covered. They’d teach him everything from scratch.

Beyond the unthinkable 

Through the MSBA program, Jonathan has gained exactly what he was looking for. He’s built valuable business analytics skills, including how to work with tools like Python and SQL. And those early fears about not knowing how to code? Totally squashed.

“I feel like I’m more enlightened. My analytics skills are up there now. There’s still more to learn, but I feel much more confident.”

In fact, learning to code has been his favorite part of the program.

“It’s an eye-opener. The fact that you can write just a line or two of code and it helps you sift through a massive amount of data—without doing it all manually—that’s been a major highlight of the program.”

Jonathan even surprised himself by stepping way out of his comfort zone: He entered a case competition.

New country, new connections

Before enrolling in the MSBA program, Jonathan had never traveled to the United States. Arriving in Iowa made him a little nervous. But he quickly found the people at Tippie, and in Iowa City as a whole, to be incredibly welcoming.

“Initially, it was a bit of a struggle because I didn’t understand some of the cultural differences or how to approach someone to start a conversation. But through working in groups and getting to know my classmates, I’ve gained a better understanding of the culture and how people interact here. It’s helped me build a community.”

Jonathan has especially appreciated his professors, who have been approachable and supportive. He’s taken full advantage of class time and office hours—something that’s not only helped him understand the material but also build personal connections.

Ultimately, one of Jonathan’s biggest reasons for pursuing the MSBA was to take his accounting background and elevate it.

“Now I’m going to look beyond just the financial reports and help guide business decisions.”

His experience has been so positive that he’s become something of a Tippie ambassador, already convincing two people to apply.