From South Africa to JADS: Danica’s path into data science and business
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Danica Altenroxel grew up in South Africa and studied at Stellenbosch University, where she completed a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronic engineering. “It was more on the technical side,” she explains. “But in my final year we could specialize. I took the informatics stream where I had a data engineering and a machine learning course, and that really just piqued my interest. That’s how I branched into more data science.”
That introduction to machine learning and data engineering sparked her curiosity. What started as a technical foundation in engineering turned into a growing passion for data. Danica just started the Master Data Science in Business and Entrepreneurship at JADS.
Looking for application and impact
By the end of her bachelor’s degree, Danica realized she wanted more than just technical knowledge. “I sort of felt that the knowledge and skills I’d acquired were almost floating a bit,” she says. “I didn’t know how to directly apply that within businesses or bring value.”
This search for application, for ways to connect technical expertise with impact in practice, guided her next step.
Exploring master’s options
When she began looking at master’s programs, Danica considered several options in Europe and the Netherlands. But many of them focused heavily on theory. “They didn’t really show how you could take what you learned and make it useful in a business context,” she explains. That missing link between data and practice made her continue the search for a program that was different.
Finding the right fit at JADS
The idea of studying abroad became realistic because her parents had friends in the Netherlands. Through them she learned about JADS and eventually had the chance to speak with professor Emile Aarts. That conversation became a turning point. “After talking to him, I knew that the Data Science in Business and Entrepreneurship master ticked all the boxes,” she recalls. “It was exactly the combination I was looking for: a strong technical basis, but also a focus on business and entrepreneurship. And the practical orientation really stood out to me. It’s about using data science to solve real-world problems in a business context.”
A different perspective in the classroom
Coming from abroad also shapes how she approaches challenges and opportunities. “We see things slightly differently, or we think of different problems,” Danica explains. “We’ve experienced different problems to the challenges that are here. So we may be coming from a slightly different angle and can combine that knowledge in a different way, which is always an interesting space to be.”
Her reflections show how diverse backgrounds can enrich discussions, especially in a program that brings together data science with business and entrepreneurship.
Looking ahead
Danica is still at the start of her JADS journey, but she already sees the road ahead as full of possibilities. “This is a space where there are really opportunities around every corner,” she says. “It’s just about taking them and sometimes creating them too.”
Interested in how you can combine data science with business and entrepreneurship, just like Danica? Learn more about the master data science in business and entrepreneurship at JADS
