Nazih Safi

An UpTurnships alum from the class of 2016, Nazih Safi has a deep interest in business analytics, economics, and statistics. In his current role in the Consulting Development Program at Optum, he has gotten a chance to work on a variety of different projects since joining the company in 2017, shortly after graduating from Augsburg University.

As an undergraduate, Nazih originally began studying chemistry. Upon taking more math and economics courses, he developed an interest in statistics. As Nazih began learning more about business analytics and predictive modeling, he found that he could combine his interests in economics and mathematics. In particular, he became drawn to data and predictive analytics. “It’s mind blowing to me, it’s the closest we can get to predicting the future,” Nazih says.

Through UpTurnships, Nazih says he better learned how to grow relationships within his professional network. He still stays in touch with his mentors from UpTurnships as well as others whom he has met through his experience at Optum.

To current and future UpTurns, Nazih’s advice is to take the program seriously. “What you put in is what you get out,” Nazih says. “So, the more you take it seriously and treat it like a real job in the limited time you have, the better off you will be.” He also recommends taking in as much as possible from speakers and mentors. Because of this, Nazih felt the transition from UpTurnships to his full-time position was made easy.

Starting Summer 2022, Nazih will return to school as a part of the MSBA program at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities.  With this degree, he hopes to gain more experience working with statistics, data, predictive modeling, trend analytics, and more that can help his career in the moving forward.