Mother of 7 makes history as the first Black person to Earn a Ph.D in Survey Methodology

Alena Maze, a married mother of seven children and well-known YouTuber, has been successful in obtaining a Ph.D in survey methodology.

She holds a doctorate in that subject and is the first and only Black person in the entire globe to accomplish so.

Because of her love of math and health, Maze decided to become a survey statistician, and she wants to increase diversity in surveys.

Maze pursued her Ph.D. in Survey Methodology and Statistics at the University of Maryland, College Park after receiving a Master of Science in Mathematics from Georgetown University.

Most recently, she shared on Facebook that she has now received her Ph.D. after passing her dissertation defense and that she is the first African American to do so.

“What’s a Survey Methodologist? Well I’m a Survey Statistician, so specifically, I research the math behind surveys,” Maze wrote.

“Suppose we want more information on how diabetes affects women ages 30-40, in order to develop better treatment courses.

Well in a perfect world, we would like to send out a survey (i.e., a series of questions) to all women ages 30-40 with diabetes.

However, this is not practical for many reasons. So instead we chose a smaller group (called a sample), say 2,000 women from that same population to represent the whole population of 30 to 40-year old women with diabetes.”

For nearly 6 years, Maze has been juggling her doctorate studies with her married life, raising her 7 children, and vlogging.

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Together with her children, she and her Korean-American husband Joseph Lee create videos for their vlogs in which they discuss their experiences as a multicultural mixed family.

Maze, who is currently 35 years old, attributes her achievement to both her hard work and the help of God.

“During this time, I had a divine contact with God’s Holy Spirit in a way that I can’t wait to share, and I experienced His love.

I can do, be, or become anything I want to because of His love, she claimed.