Every year, graduates from the College of Letters & Science enter the workforce and begin to contribute thousands of dollars to their local, state, and national economies. They bring the skills and knowledge they gained at UW-Milwaukee to their jobs, along with their ambitions and fresh perspectives.
In this article series, we highlight some of the recent Letters & Science alumni who have found fulfilling roles in their chosen fields.
Name: Carmen (Henry) Walton
Graduation Year: 2022
Major: Mathematical Sciences
Job: Business IT Analyst at RR Donnelly
Carmen Walton has some advice for up-and-coming graduates: Don’t be afraid of detours.
“Sometimes the detour is a better option,” she said. “Sometimes, the winding route introduces you to a lot of unique perspectives that you wouldn’t have gotten just going the linear route.”
Walton was born and raised in Milwaukee, so when it came time for college, she went right to her hometown university. The plan was to major in actuarial science, graduate in four years, and settle down with a good job.
What happened was that Walton fell ill and had to take leave of absence from UWM to focus on her health. She had to find jobs to support herself – from African dancer to toy company production manager to social media manager for the poet laureate of Milwaukee.
By the time she was able to reenroll at UWM seven years later to finish her studies, she’d lost interest in actuarial science. All of her plans were out the window. But, Walton said, math still made sense.
“I could speak in numbers,” Walton said with a laugh. “I absolutely love problem solving, critical thinking, quantitative analysis. That’s my jam.”
She graduated in 2022 as a nontraditional student and took a job as a tech delivery analyst in a healthcare business. Then she, like thousands of others in the tech sector, was laid off in 2023. It was another detour, so Walton just had to forge a new path, again. This time, the road led her to RR Donnelly, where she is now a business IT analyst.
“I love it,” Walton said. “My team is awesome. The job itself gives enough challenge. I love to pick things apart and troubleshoot, and I am faced with programming logic challenges nearly every day. I love all of it.”
If anyone remembers the Yellow Pages, RR Donnelly was the company that originally published them. These days, however, the business is more focused on printing and packaging. Walton’s division works primarily to publish Medicare and Medicaid information. That’s been a daunting task this year, as the federal government has made significant changes to the programs, and Walton and her team have to reflect those thousands of changes in their work.
As a business IT analyst, it’s Walton’s job to be the liaison between the clients – usually insurance providers – and RR Donnelly’s development and programming teams. She helps translate the clients wishes’ to the programmers so that the correct product can be made and delivered. She uses data analytics to make sure her team’s documents are complete.
The “IT” part of her job title might fool you. Isn’t information technology the realm of computer science majors?
“I love this question,” Walton said with a grin. Yes, she does have some certificates in coding, but the basic skills that she needs for her job, she learned in her math classes at UWM. “Critical thinking, problem solving, qualitative and quantitative analysis – all of that transfers. If you’re an expert in anything and you have numerical skills, the pipeline to data analytics is very easy to do.”
Those skills are important for her job, but Walton says that anyone can be successful if they have a healthy sense of curiosity and a willingness to learn and ask questions. Those traits have helped her grow in her role at RR Donnelly, and she can envision herself continuing to flourish at the company and grow her skills.
At least, that’s where she hopes her path will take her – but if it doesn’t, Walton is ready to make the most of the detour.
By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science