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Student Spotlight Dana Blaney: How to get the most from your internship Major: Accounting Honors: Academic Excellence Award in Accounting; Alpha Kappa Psi Scholarship Award; Recipient of Gilliam and Presidential scholarships; Member of Phi Kappa Phi, Beta Gamma Sigma, Beta Alpha Psi and Phi Eta Sigma honor societies Activities: Beta Alpha Psi Secretary, Business Fellows, Alpha Omicron Pi In summer 2008, I interned at KPMG in Greensboro, N.C., on three audit engagement teams. I was able to experience everything that a big firm has to offer: training in Los Angeles; traveling to a conference in Atlanta for a case study; working on audits of public, private and not-for-profit companies; and networking with hundreds of my peers and professionals in upper-level management. Through this experience, I determined that I ultimately wanted to work for a large, public accounting firm. There are bigger opportunities, new people to meet everyday, and greater variety in my day-to-day tasks. This fall, I will begin working at Pricewaterhouse Coopers in New York as part of their financial services audit team. The advice I would give to students looking for internships is to try different kinds of jobs. I interned at an investment bank, a small local public accounting firm in tax, and at a large public accounting firm in audit. It was only through these experiences that I was able to determine what I wanted to do upon graduation. In addition, wherever you end up, volunteer for anything and everything. If you have the opportunity to travel to a conference, to present at a meeting, or to help a staff accountant with their work - do it. It serves not only as a learning opportunity, but also shows management that you are willing to go above and beyond your daily responsibilities. In this economy, you have to be an exemplary worker, not a mediocre one. Anything you can do to make yourself stand out in a positive way is worthwhile to your career.
Paul Benedict: Increasing awareness of financial matters among students Honors: President's List, Dean's List My experience in the Love School of Business exceeded my expectations and prepared me well for the real world. The commendable deans and professors in the LSB strive to help students harvest their potential for success. Over the past few months, two students and I have been working on developing a financial literacy program at Elon. In February, we entered the Best Practices competition at Beta Alpha Psi's Southeast Regional Conference held in Nashville. We developed a presentation, "Make Your Money Work for You," which addressed issues related to budgeting, savings and credit. Our presentation was warmly received, and its success inspired us to bring this program home to the Elon student body. Since our return from Nashville, we have been working with Dr. Linda Poulson to integrate a financial literacy program into the Elon 101 classes required for all incoming freshmen. The curriculum developed for the Elon 101 classes focuses on the importance of personal finance, but our long-term goal is to grow this program into a mandatory freshman core class within the General Studies program to give Elon students critical skills as they enter the real world. Since the day I walked on Elon's campus, I've benefited from every moment. The LSB provided me with the knowledge, education and expertise to successfully navigate the difficult job market: I've secured a job just down the road from Elon at Smith Leonard CPAs, where I'll begin my career just after graduation. Remaining so close to Elon, I plan to continue to stay involved with the LSB and look forward to integrating our financial literacy program in the fabric of Elon's curriculum.
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