From contributing to the Toronto Zoo’s “Virtual Zookeeper” to tracking cross-border travel trends at Visa and analyzing fan engagement at Universal Music Canada, Ivey’s MSc in Management: Business Analytics students spent their summer internships showing how data can reshape industries. Their summer roles, part of the Ivey Analytics Internship (IAI), combined technical problem-solving with strategy, storytelling, and leadership.
Learning in real-world settings
For MSc Business Analytics student Tiffany Ren, a summer internship at the Toronto Zoo was a chance to help a major organization see its data in a new way.
In the Zoo’s newly formed Analytics & AI Department, Ren worked as a data and artificial intelligence (AI) analyst, building a guest survey pipeline that turned weeks of manual work into real-time insights.
“One of my proudest moments was seeing the new guest survey analysis system go live,” she said. “Now, they can filter sentiment and topics by demographic, visit pattern, or satisfaction score in seconds … It felt great knowing I had helped transform a slow, manual process into something real-time and interactive that made guest feedback much more actionable.”
She also contributed to the “Virtual Zookeeper,” an AI-powered guest tool designed to answer visitor questions and ease pressure on staff, developed in collaboration with the University of Toronto.
“[Ivey] trained me to adapt quickly. In a brand-new department, there was no playbook, and I often had to design workflows from scratch,” she said. “Aim to deliver tools and insights people will actually use. The biggest win is making someone’s job easier.”
Turning analytics into strategy
At Universal Music Canada, Raj Roy, an MSc ’25 candidate, learned how analytics could fuel creativity in an industry built on artistry. As an insights intern, Roy went beyond reporting to designing a fan-focused research project that culminated in a company-wide presentation to senior leadership.
“This project initially started as just a simple idea; however, it quickly turned into an engaging, creativity-driven piece of work that proved more insightful than initially thought,” he said. “The experience of transforming a basic concept into meaningful insights and then presenting those findings to senior leadership reinforced my confidence in tackling complex projects and demonstrated the value of allowing creative exploration to guide research.”
Roy said he appreciated how much space he had to contribute to creative conversations.
“I learned that successful projects require understanding different stakeholder needs – some stakeholders want high-level insights while others need actionable details,” he said. “Most importantly, individual contributors can drive meaningful change when they take ownership and think beyond their defined role boundaries.”
Bridging data and business at Visa
As a Data Science Intern at Visa in Toronto, MSc Business Analytics student Rovel Persaud faced the challenge of connecting technical analysis to strategic questions at a global payments company. He focused on U.S.–Canada travel trends during a period of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, when shifts in consumer behaviour carried significant implications.
“I came in thinking I would spend most of my time with heads-down coding, but in reality, a large portion of the role involved presenting findings, building dashboards, and discussing business implications,” Persaud said. “I also came to appreciate how much businesses value forward-looking insights. At Visa, data wasn’t just used to summarize what had already happened, but to anticipate what might come next.”
A highlight was travelling to Visa’s headquarters in San Francisco, where he met senior leadership and explored the city with peers.
“It made the internship feel like more than just work; it became a shared journey,” he said. “Embrace the unexpected. Some of the most rewarding moments, such as travelling to San Francisco or collaborating on cross-team projects, weren’t things I could have predicted.”
Persaud credited the MSc program for preparing him to thrive in ambiguity.
“The case-based learning approach at Ivey mirrored the ambiguity of real-world problems at Visa, where the path forward isn’t always clear. Instead of being intimidated, I learned to approach these challenges methodically, framing hypotheses, testing them, and iterating as needed,” he said.
Lessons in adaptability and ownership
Across internships, the students all shared that data succeeds when it connects to people, strategy, and change. Ren emphasized tailoring tools for users, Persaud credited mentors for pushing him to ask better questions, and Roy said his most rewarding projects came from expanding simple ideas into company-wide work.
Preparing leaders for data-driven industries
Learnings from the Ivey Analytics Internship are proof that technical skills alone aren’t enough – what sets Ivey students apart is their ability to connect analytics to broader strategy and communicate insights in ways that influence decision-making.
Raj said he became confident in presenting while at Ivey, which helped him create and deliver insight slide-decks to teams at Universal Music.
“[During the internship] I was pulled into brainstorming discussions, creative meetings, and fan engagement strategy sessions where I had the freedom to contribute something bigger than just numbers,” he said. “It’s shown me that insights aren’t just numbers in a real-world business setting. Instead, insights are stories that influence every corner of Universal Music Canada.”
Ren also grew her confidence by leading projects from start to finish and sharing her work with stakeholders – experiences that showed her how much she had progressed over the summer.
Their experiences reflect IAI’s mission: preparing students to lead data-driven organizations.
“Real-world business is not just about solving technical problems; it’s about connecting solutions to people, strategy, and ultimately, growth,” said Persaud.
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