Meghan Iacuelli

Before coming to ASU, Meghan Iacuelli earned a bachelor’s degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Arizona. All her favorite courses were about genetics. Then she learned something surprising.

“The entire field of population genetics was created by a set of statisticians,” Iacuelli says.

After a short stint teaching fifth-grade math, her dad, an Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering alumnus in civil engineering, encouraged her to pursue an industrial engineering degree at ASU.

“Industrial engineers use a ton of probability and statistics, do deliberate mathematical analysis and often work with people to improve their jobs and make the workplace safer,” Iacuelli says. “It felt like the perfect culmination of the skillsets I felt energized when using.”

Iacuelli really knew she was on the right track in Principal Lecturer Linda Chattin’s IEE 385: Engineering Statistics: Probability course.

“She talked about how challenging the concepts were,” Iacuelli recalls. “As I was learning them, they felt intuitive to me, meaning I was picking a subject that worked well with the way I process information.”

During her senior year, Iacuelli passed on her statistics skills as a tutor in the Fulton Schools Tutoring Centers, noting it was “rewarding getting to help my peers better understand statistical and probabilistic concepts.”

Though it was stressful balancing work, health and grades, she utilized the time management skills she’d acquired as a teacher and realized the importance of taking breaks with friends.

“One semester when my friends and I had a break between classes we would declare ‘Food Truck Thursdays,’” Iacuelli says. “We got lunch at the food trucks by College Avenue Commons and then pulled out hammocks and hammocked in front of Tooker House before class. It was such a good break with my fellow industrial engineering and engineering management friends that we all needed during the stress of the semester.”

She’s also very thankful for the support from friends and family when she decided to go back to school.

“To have so much support from those around me is something I am privileged and thankful to have,” she says.

After graduation, Iacuelli will start a job with Microsoft on the company’s Azure Cloud Supply Chain.

“I look forward to working on that team and applying the skills learned at the Fulton Schools to this position!” she says.

Read about other exceptional graduates of the Fulton Schools’ spring 2019 class here.