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Early in her career, Elisheba Choppala worked as an intern for a consumer-packaged goods company. She worked on data analysis, and that experience made it clear how much businesses rely on clear information. The internship became a permanent position, and Choppala used data analytics to support the company for several more years. 

When Choppala was ready to continue her education, she was also looking for a change. Originally from Abu Dhabi, she’d been in the Midwest for eight years. She was ready to live somewhere new and, as she looked into her options, everything kept pointing toward Seattle and the Information School’s Master of Science in Information Management (������̳).    

“The multidisciplinary approach of the iSchool really drew me to the program,” she said. “It’s helped me put into perspective what I was working on.”

Since joining the program, Choppala has become an active student leader and recently earned the Alice K. Stowe Scholarship.

Choppala arrived in Seattle just in the gloom of early winter and had a hard time settling in at first. But by the time applications opened for board members for the Association of Information Management Students (AIMS), Choppala was more settled. And she kept seeing information about the applications everywhere.

With some encouragement from friends, she decided to apply for the position of president. She turned in her application the weekend it was due and was surprised and overjoyed to be selected.

“It’s been the most challenging, yet rewarding experience,” she said. “It’s been exactly the skills that I wanted to grow in. I’m leading a team of 14 people. I’ve been learning delegating, sharing a vision and keeping people on the same page.”

AIMS supports personal development and career growth for ������̳ students. Choppala is proud of how much work the group has accomplished over the past year, including putting on 13 events for students. That included career fairs, social events, fundraisers and competitions. Choppala and AIMS board members also helped organize the recent UW Startup Career Fair, in partnership with the university’s Lavin Entrepreneurship Program.

Choppala is also a peer advisor for the ������̳ program. Along with her work with AIMS, that role has given her a broader perspective on the needs of students, including those online. During her tenure as AIMS president, she’s helped online students get more involved in the Information School. She hopes that means more online students on the AIMS board in the future. 

Choppala says that, from the beginning, she’s seen a strong focus on leadership at the Information School.

“The program wants you to learn leadership early and apply it throughout,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot about my own leadership skills and how I communicate and work well with others.”

She’s also been grateful for the support from her professors.

“Every professor is so willing to help you, to guide you in your career advancement,” she said.

She says that support helped her get noticed by recruiters and earn an internship with Premera Blue Cross, a Washington health insurance company. She helped improve data and information flow for a team that trains customer representatives. The data management had been a very manual process, but she created a system that saved time by automating reporting and helped teachers easily see if students were understanding the information. 

“I definitely utilized skills I learned in the program,” she said.

Iris Cao, an ������̳ program academic advisor, has worked regularly with Choppala.

“She has a lot of strengths, including her ability to build community and bring people together,” Cao said. “I’ve been in the field of student affairs for seven-plus years, and Eli stands out with such a rare and exceptional talent to connect very authentically with people from all walks of life.”

Cao says that Choppala’s ability to listen deeply and build trust has made her very effective in her work. And that has, in turn, helped strengthen the overall student community.

“Eli is so creative and open to new ideas,” Cao said. “She’s always game. She’s able to turn ideas into reality by bringing people together.”

Choppala will graduate in June. She appreciates that the scholarship took off some of the pressure of finances, and gave her more mental capacity to focus on her studies and her future.

"I want my education to open doors where I can lead teams and build information systems that genuinely improve people's lives,” she said. “I've worked across manufacturing, oil and gas, and health care — and no matter the industry, I'm always looking for where I can make a real difference."