Jazmine Gurrola ’26, an applied math major with a concentration in computer science, has always loved baseball. Not many people associate sports with math, and it’s not a common academic-to-career pipeline, but Gurrola has found a career path that combines the two things she loves. Since seventh grade, Gurrola has been interested in analytics and sports statistics. With a longstanding goal of working for Major League Baseball (MLB), she has tailored her skills and college research experiences to prepare her for a career as a sports analyst.
For many students, Azusa Pacific University is part of their family’s story. Some students have had multiple generations of family members graduate from APU, while others are attending at the same time as their siblings. Gurrola’s older sister attended APU for her undergraduate studies and is currently pursuing her master’s degree at the university. After hearing about her sister’s experience in theology classes and with faith on campus, Gurrola decided to attend APU to grow in her own faith. She was awarded the Provost’s Scholarship ($20,000 per year), which helped reduce her tuition costs.
At APU, Gurrola has found her people as a fellow in the Math and Physics Fellowship
with the Department of Computer Science, Engineering, Math, Physics, and Science (CEMPS), which builds community among STEM majors by intertwining faith with vocation and
providing students with scholarships. The fellowship gets together to read books and
discuss how God is a part of math and physics. “So many of these disciplines challenge
me to ask questions about His existence and the complexities of math related to God,”
she said.
Since starting at APU, the Bible verse Gurrola has taken comfort in is Philippians 4:6-7, which says, “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (NRSV). “I tend to worry a lot about anything and everything, and I’m learning to instead have faith in God regardless of my circumstances and how I feel,” she said. “I hope this verse is helpful to other people because life can be challenging, and it may be easy to think that we can’t go to God in those moments, but He wants us to come to Him at every point in our lives as He loves and cares for us.”
Gurrola has spent time getting to know her professors and gaining insight into their academic and career experiences to clarify and achieve her own goals after graduation. “I am in a smaller department, so I have more access to working with professors in and out of the classroom,” she said. “My professors are the ones who introduced me to research and learning to code and encouraged me to step outside of my comfort zone. I feel comfortable meeting with my professors, and they’ve been helpful in taking time to learn about my goals and advise me on how I can reach them.” Gurrola is planning to pursue a master’s degree, and her professors have also been influential in helping her understand which steps to take and how to research programs that will prepare her to work as a sports analyst.
During her time at APU, Gurrola has prepared for grad school and her career through two research internships. During the summers of 2024 and 2025, Gurrola worked as a research assistant to Kaitlyn Fitzgerald, PhD. Gurrola worked with the Sports Content for Outreach, Research, and Education (SCORE) network, creating research questions and using data to create educational modules. “All of the coding was done by students, and we turned our research into labs for students,” she said. “APU students are doing labs in their classes that my research partners and I created.” Gurrola presented her research at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS) in 2024.
She also attended the University of California, Los Angeles McNair Scholar conference
in 2025 where she presented a research project she did in one of Fitzgerald’s classes.
Most recently, Gurrola attended the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) conference in Arizona where she met with and heard from other college students
pursuing similar career paths. “I was in the MLB sponsorship program for that conference,
so I was able to spend a few extra days in Arizona meeting with 12 teams’ front office
staff members,” she said.
The SABR conference wasn’t Gurrola’s only chance to work with MLB teams. She is a part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) mentorship program. Through the program, she attended the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference and was paired with the director of predictive modeling for the Philadelphia Phillies. “Another perk of the program is that I can reach out to them if I need anything, so it was helpful to travel to Boston for that conference and learn more about how sports analytics correlates with research.”
Gurrola will graduate in December, allowing her to spend several months pursuing solo research projects and internships before starting her master’s degree next fall. “This time will be a great opportunity to work for a team before getting focused on my program,” she said. Gurrola’s goal is to work in player development, helping teams evaluate their players’ physical movements, patterns, and other data to identify how they can strengthen their team. “Being a part of the TRIO McNair Scholars program, talking to my sister about her APU experience, and getting help from my professors has been so beneficial,” she said. “I’ve been able to have conversations about what I want to do after my time at APU, and looking forward has been really exciting.”