For three Franklin alumni, Amanda Cameron, Madelyn Crane, and Alex Parsons, their journeys into math were anything but identical. Yet each graduated with the same enduring skill: the ability to think clearly in a complex world.

Amanda Cameron didn’t plan on majoring in math. In fact, she arrived at Franklin bouncing between majors in the biological sciences, unsure of her place. Organic chemistry convinced her she may not be headed for medical school after all. What surprised her was how much she enjoyed linear algebra. The visual logic of matrices just clicked.

A turning point came during her junior year, when she stopped by the office hours of systems biology professor Dr. Juan Gutierrez. He encouraged her not just to take more math courses but to see herself as someone who belonged in mathematics. She began immersing herself into the math department, even becoming an undergraduate research fellow where she co-authored a literature review on biological systems modeling for muscular dystrophy. But all of this required a bit of hustling as she also juggled multiple jobs, from washing dishes to doing IT work. The late start, however, did not slow her down. Since graduating in 2017, Cameron has moved quickly through roles at AT&T, Slalom, Google Cloud, Microsoft, and now Snowflake, a leading cloud-based data platform where she serves as a senior principal Chief Technical Officer. She works at the cutting edge of cloud computing and agentic AI, fields that demand both curiosity and rigor.

“It wasn’t a traditional path,” she says, “but once I found my path, diving in headfirst and fully committing myself made all the difference.”

One of her proudest career moments came at Google Cloud, where she led the architecture of an AI solution designed to help a major retailer reduce inefficiencies in its distribution centers. The system didn’t just save time; it reduced food waste and changed how teams shared knowledge on the warehouse floor. “It takes a village to solve planet- sized problems,” she says, remembering the collaboration that made it possible.

The career track for math majors is evolving, Cameron says. Agentic AI is a massive frontier. Her advice to graduating students is to look closely at high-performance computing, the emerging field of research software engineering, and the sales industry. If she could go back and speak to her younger self, Amanda would say: don’t panic about taking the long way. “Trust the process. Run your own play. When the right opportunity comes along, take the smart risk.”

Just a few years later, another student was having her own realization. Madelyn Crane started at UGA as a civil engineering major, drawn to the idea of building big things. But what she found herself loving most was the mathematics behind the engineering-the equations, the modeling, the elegance of solving for the unknown.

Switching to applied mathematics widened her world. Classes helped her approach problems visually and analytically, and an experiential learning experience through a partnership project with Mohawk Industries in a research course introduced her to the power of mathematical modeling in real business operations. She learned how optimization, costs, and logistics could converge into a single solution.

Today, Madelyn works at Warner Robins Air Force Base as a maintenance workload analyst, where her day-to-day calculations help inform mission readiness. Using historical data, calculus, and probability, she models how changes in schedules or budgets ripple through operations. The stakes are high, and she approaches each challenge with the same mindset she developed at UGA: stay curious, work the problem, make it better.

For Alex Parsons, the route into mathematics was more straightforward, as she always knew numbers were where she felt most at home. At Franklin, she blended math with a business minor and an actuarial certificate, preparing herself for a career that balanced analytical precision with real-world application.

At Guidehouse, a global AI-led professional services firm, where she now works as an actuarial consultant, Alex quickly made her mark. On one project, she designed a computationally efficient formula that replaced hundreds of thousands of individual calculations. What once took vast computing power was distilled into a single elegant expression, proof that mathematical theory can dramatically reshape business operations.

She’s become a strong advocate for what a math degree signals. “It shows employers that you can solve hard problems and work diligently,” Parsons says. She encourages students to start thinking about their careers early and begin applying well before graduation approaches.

These alumnae didn’t follow the same path into mathematics or the job market, yet they are bound by the ability to think critically and confront complexity with confidence. These three women embody the characteristics of the Franklin Spark that unite its students and graduates across the arts and sciences: undeniably ambitious, exceptionally curious, wildly creative, incredibly innovative, and tomorrow’s leaders. No wonder they’re so successful.