Barfuo Abayie Boakye-Boaten

Supports decision making by collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data related to customer behavior, financial products, and business performance. Advances from early analyst experience by applying analytical frameworks, testing business strategies, and developing insights that help improve services, optimize operations, and identify opportunities for growth across business teams

Supported research on flood patterns in North Carolina through geospatial mapping, remote sensing, and data visualization. Collected and organized USDA CropScape/CDL land cover data to support time series analysis and spatial research. Applied ArcGIS Pro to examine geographic trends, land cover changes, and flood-related risk patterns, translating complex spatial datasets into clear visual insights for research use.

Supports decision making by collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data related to customer behavior, financial products, and branch performance. Improve services, optimize operations, and identify opportunities for growth by providing insights and recommendations to business teams.

At the end of my senior year in high school, I worked as an economic development intern with the Asheville Buncombe Community Land Trust (ABCLT) through the Bank of America Student Leader Program. The ABCLT is a ‘community-led effort that was formed to address the injustices of urban renewal and the increasing cost of living in our area,’ providing homeownership opportunities for low-to-moderate income Black residents. Under this internship, I created a database for the ABCLT containing community connections, ie. various organizations and potential programs that could be partners or collaborators in homeownership efforts, including organizations like the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, YWCA, Self Help Credit Union, and Ontrack Financial Education. One aspect of the internship was job shadowing Mr. Keevon Baten, the Director of Business Recruitment and Economic Development at the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, and there I gained knowledge and insights into the foundation of the operations conducted and the resources provided for the city regarding economic development through attracting companies to the Asheville area.

A program for community-oriented high schoolers that allows youth to participate in an eight-week paid internship with a nonprofit organization in their community. I was selected as 1/300 out of 5000+ applicants nationwide for the Bank of America Student Leaders Program (3-6% acceptance rate) to be a representative of the Asheville Market.

As an economic development intern at Black Wall Street Asheville through the City of Asheville Youth Leadership Academy, I facilitated and collaborated on initiatives combating economic and racial inequities in my community. Through extensive research about the economic history of Asheville under Black Wall Street, I concluded that African Americans in my home city struggled because of a lack of support for entrepreneurship. Through historical and systemic policies from slavery, Jim Crow, and urban renewal, many African Americans have been disenfranchised, resulting in generations of economic inequalities.