When Alexandra Miller-Thomas ’26 turned seven, she received her first pair of skates, a gift that would help define her.
Growing up in the metro Detroit area, adopted from Kazakhstan by her two moms and sharing a sports-filled childhood with her brother, she was always on the move, from field hockey to soccer to horseback riding. But synchronized skating became her true passion. “I loved being on the ice and having this creative flow, but also the discipline that comes with it,” said Miller-Thomas, who rose to become a nationally ranked ice dancer in high school. “And you have to be coordinated with your whole team. It shaped who I was for many years.”
She has applied these qualities, hard work, creativity, and being a team player, to the rest of her life as well. Her academic interests often gravitated toward STEM, and for a while she pictured herself becoming a doctor. But one of her moms, an engineer, encouraged her to try out summer coding camps and explore the world of data. And when Miller-Thomas toured Syracuse University, she realized she’d found the perfect fit for this new path. “You get both a university big enough that you feel you’re getting the big-school experience with lots of spirit, and the really small college experience at the iSchool, where your teachers want you to do well and everyone knows everyone,” she said.
Miller-Thomas has embraced the college experience wholeheartedly. For the first two years, the applied data analytics major joined the skating team, which won two consecutive sectional championships. She also found community in Kappa Theta Pi, the professional technology fraternity, participated in the Renee Crown Honors Program for three years, and is sharing her enthusiasm for Syracuse as an admissions ambassador. Invited to join the university’s marketing advisory committee as a first-year student, she developed an interest in the field, which she pursued during a summer internship in digital marketing with a cabinet manufacturing company and a marketing minor through the Whitman School of Management.
She chose her second minor, art history, simply out of passion, one she discovered through electives and got to pursue in depth during a semester abroad in Florence, Italy, during her junior year. “It was incredible being able to see some of the artworks that I’d been studying for years,” Miller-Thomas said. Though she had traveled to Europe several times with her family, “studying abroad was definitely one of the best experiences I’ve ever had,” she said. “There’s nothing quite like picking up and moving to another country for four months, where you experience a new lifestyle, culture, food, art, history, and just get outside of your comfort zone.”
Inspired by the rhythm of life in Europe and the ease of traveling within the continent, Miller-Thomas is now considering moving back after graduation. Through the specialty insurance company H.W. Kaufman Group, where she interned as a technical business analyst and has continued working part time, she hopes to have the opportunity to work in their European offices. “I really love all the knowledge I’ve gained through this job,” she said. “Business analytics is something I never thought I’d do, and there was a lot of growth I needed in order to figure out what I was working on and be successful. Now I love it and am excited to see where this leads me in the future.”
Wherever that path may lead, Miller-Thomas plans to keep applying the lessons she’s learned so far, starting from her first turns on the ice. “Working with others, knowing your limits, sticking with something, those things matter everywhere,” she said.