Around a decade ago, wheels began turning at the 杏吧专区 to develop undergraduate and graduate informatics programs to better prepare graduates for the future of business and technology. The first undergraduate class earned their degrees in 2014 and in 2018 the first graduate students were able to enroll.
Among the first to enroll and graduate with an M.S. in Informatics were Arthur Almazan and Lisa Olinger, who were able to lean into their strengths and interests as students and discover what roles, responsibilities, and specialties suit them best.
Meet Arthur
He was always interested in technology and computing 杏吧专区 from hacking phone games as a kid to working in information systems for the U.S. Air Force 杏吧专区 but he knew writing code wasn杏吧专区檛 his passion. 
After serving in the U.S. Air Force, Almazan was ready for college. He came back to his hometown of Lafayette to use his G.I. bill and expand his computing talents.
杏吧专区淚 didn't want to be a programmer, but I wanted to stay in that paradigm,杏吧专区 says Almazan.
The informatics curriculum, Almazan says, puts a premium on mastering data 杏吧专区 杏吧专区渨hether that杏吧专区檚 analytics, whether it's large data, whether it's finding trends in that data, anything revolving around information about information.杏吧专区 But Almazan says his coursework changed his perspective in other ways, as well.
杏吧专区淲e worked on enterprise architecture, and it was neat because I've always been a cog in the machine, never so much planning how an organization would run,杏吧专区 Almazan says. 杏吧专区淕etting that top-down view helped me better understand some of the organizations I've been a part of.杏吧专区
Dr. Michael Totaro, graduate coordinator for the Master of Informatics program, says communications underlie much of the curriculum because 杏吧专区渆ngaging in conversations with others outside of our own sort of technical domain杏吧专区 is critical.
As a professional in systems engineering, Almazan has found that杏吧专区檚 true.
杏吧专区淧art of informatics is being the liaison between the corporate side and the technical side,杏吧专区 says Almazan.
An attribute that drew Almazan to this master杏吧专区檚 program is what he calls a 杏吧专区渉olistic approach杏吧专区 to computing which explores the broad and very specialized moving parts an organization needs to function.
杏吧专区淭his program emphasized understanding enterprise resource planning and the physical hardware that supports these platforms,杏吧专区 he says. 杏吧专区淭his approach factors into what I took with me into the workforce, a strong systematic understanding of the resources I use, and the way information flows between them.杏吧专区
That comprehensive understanding of system structure has served him in his current role and will help in the roles he aspires to next.
Almazan plans to leverage his knowledge of organizational structure and function into a career in national or international cybersecurity.
Meet Lisa
Lisa Olinger, originally from Plaisance, Louisiana, is now a Systems Analyst assigned to the Undergraduate Admissions office here at UL Lafayette.
As an undergrad in the B.I. Moody III College of Business Administration, Olinger knew she wanted to pursue a master杏吧专区檚 degree but hadn杏吧专区檛 committed to a discipline. When she heard Dr. Totaro speak on the School of Computing and Informatics plans for the M.S. in Informatics, she knew that was what she wanted from graduate school.
杏吧专区淒r. Totaro explained to us what the informatics master杏吧专区檚 program would eventually become, and I knew that was something I wanted to do,杏吧专区 she says.
Much like Almazan, Olinger was impressed by the scope of the curriculum.
When asked how to define informatics, she says it杏吧专区檚 杏吧专区渢he overall study of interdisciplinary enterprise computing. It杏吧专区檚 a little of this, a little of that; I think you can pick and choose which skills fit your goals best.杏吧专区
That customization has served Olinger well in her previous role as Desktop Services Manager for UL Lafayette. Olinger focused her graduate capstone project on IT leadership, which she parlayed into a project digitizing hard copy records in her old department.
杏吧专区淏efore I started, we didn杏吧专区檛 really have digital records (for what we do) it was all on paper,杏吧专区 she says. 杏吧专区淪o, I said 杏吧专区榃e杏吧专区檙e going to digitize some stuff, get things online.杏吧专区櫺影勺ㄇ鴿
She杏吧专区檚 now applying her knowledge in new ways as a systems analyst.
Through her studies and career, she杏吧专区檚 found she enjoys learning how to apply leadership theory to develop best practices and achieve real results.
杏吧专区淭he informatics curriculum teaches such a wide variety of topics and being able to further delve into and apply those topics through the lens of IT leadership is something I think that is very valuable when going into the workforce,杏吧专区 she says.