Anthony Bray spent years in jobs that didn't fit. One graduate program changed that — and launched a career he loves.
He hadn't known it was his until he enrolled in Nazareth University's master's program in business analytics and AI.
From New York City to the Finger Lakes
Bray grew up in the Bronx, raised by a single mother who typically worked until midnight. A scholarship program gave him access to a private boarding school, and strong grades opened college doors. He landed at a well-regarded liberal arts college in the Finger Lakes region of New York, studied media and society, and also theatre, and graduated in 2023.
Jobs that paid the bills, but didn't fit
What followed was a stretch of jobs that paid the bills but didn't fit. A nonprofit marketing role. A bank teller position, then a promotion to commercial loan operations. A stint teaching first grade, where he discovered he had the stage presence for it, but not the appetite. "Being 'on' 24/7 drained me," he says.
When he returned to school, the program's flexibility — available in person, live online, or asynchronously — meant he could work while earning his grad degree.
Deciding to ask for help
He wanted a career that challenged him and used skills he cared about building. As he considered grad school, he was drawn to personalized attention in small classes and tailored mentorship. Studying business analytics and AI sounded interesting, but his bad experience in an undergrad course where the professor assumed students had a background in the field made him worry about his readiness. "One bad professor changed the entire course of my life — made me think an entire field was outside my skill set."
Bray decided, this time, to ask for help and not give up.
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| Bray is in a new career he loves, working as a business intelligence systems analyst. |
Progressive growth
The grad program started slow and built steadily: Excel, then Python, then machine learning models and data visualization tools. The pacing made a difference. "The learning progression felt more natural," he says. "We started with smaller problems, moved to bigger ones. It had a domino effect." Something clicked that he hadn't felt in any classroom before. "It was like someone afraid of heights who goes skydiving and finds out they're amazing at it."
The grad program is available in person, live online, or online asynchronously. That flexibility enables him to join classes via Zoom when needed.
His professor Rajat Shukla says Bray's trajectory exemplifies what the program is designed to do: help people pivot into analytics careers regardless of their technical background, and give them room to grow fast.
Discovering he was well prepared
When Bray started interviewing for jobs, he was braced to be underestimated. What he found instead surprised him. Sitting across from analysts at large, well-known companies, he realized many were still working primarily in Excel spreadsheets and SQL code. When he mentioned machine learning models, data visualization tools, data engineering, and automation, interviewers "looked at me like I was speaking French." He could see inefficiencies that a line or two of Python could fix, and he learned to translate that into language that landed.
A role that fits
In March, he was hired as a business intelligence systems analyst at Buffalo Center for Arts and Technology, a 90-minute drive from home in Rochester. The work is exactly what he wanted: building data systems, automating grant funding reports, solving operational puzzles with code. His theatre background turned out to be an asset, too. Presenting findings to a board, he says, requires real storytelling. "You have to act out the story for them."
Worth it
He graduates from Nazareth in December. “This grad program got me back on course with the technical and practical skills I wanted to build — strategy, STEM, that kind of thing,” says Bray. “I gained more than I ever thought I would. It gave me the skills to build a system for myself, to stay current on whatever comes next. It’s an education that’s truly worth your money.”
