I Just Wanted a Better Funnel Report
How a simple admissions reporting project became a lesson in definitions, dates, and data modeling
About Me
I work somewhere between higher education operations, data analytics, and practical technology. Most of my work starts with a question that sounds simple until you actually try to answer it: How many students did this? Where did this number come from? Why does this report not match that report? What, exactly, are we counting?
That is where I tend to be useful. I like taking messy information, cleaning it up, testing the logic, and turning it into something people can actually use. Sometimes that means a SQL query. Sometimes it means a dashboard, a validation process, a Python script, or just a better definition of the question.
My interest in technology is not really technology for its own sake. I like SQL because it forces you to be honest about your assumptions. I like Python because it lets a rough idea become a working tool. I like databases, reports, and systems because, when they are built well, they make work less mysterious and less dependent on guesswork.
A lot of my professional focus is in admissions and enrollment reporting, where small details matter more than people usually expect. A tiny definition change can completely alter what a number means. So I care about clean logic, transparent assumptions, and reports that someone else can open six months later and still trust.
That probably comes from a liberal arts habit as much as a technical one. The goal is not just to produce numbers. The goal is to ask better questions, understand the limits of the answer, and make the work in front of people a little clearer.
Outside of work, I like building things the hands-on way. I experiment with Linux servers, virtual machines, Proxmox, databases, automation, and self-hosted tools in my home lab. For me, learning works best when there is a real thing to break, fix, improve, and eventually understand.