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BizBuzz Student spends intense summer honing leadership skills. Since transferring to the College of Business Administration in January, 2007, from a junior college that “seemed like high school,” accounting major Gabriela Manrique has discovered a world of challenge and opportunity.
In May, 2007, Grant Thornton (GT) selected her as one of the first two students from the college to participate in its newly launched local version of the firm’s national Footsteps program, which identifies internship candidates early and gives them a taste of a public accounting career. The event to announce her selection included presentations about GT’s service lines and career options, lectures from company principals, and teambuilding activities. “It was a great opportunity to interact with GT employees; obtain information about the company, its people, and its culture, and give them a chance to get to know us,” Manrique said. Later that month, she was one of seven students from the college chosen to attend the all-expenses paid Accounting Scholars Leadership Workshop, sponsored by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and held in Peachtree, Georgia. (Please see the story about this valuable event for diversity leaders in News of Note.) “There were many interesting activities and a chance to create a presentation, working with a team of students from other universities,” she said. July, 2007, took her Eckerd College in Tampa Bay, Florida, for the Diversity Leadership Program (DLP), a division of Monster.com. The weekend event of networking and skills training takes place annually in ten cities across the country, with 300 student leaders attending each. Finally, in August, Manrique took in the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting’s (ALPFA) annual convention in Orlando, Florida, participating in the KPMG case competition and interviewing with five companies. “I wanted to get involved, learn more about the real world, and work with others,” she said. “The case competition seemed like a good way.” (Please see the article in News of Note to learn what the other five team members thought about the experience.) Manrique returns home, but stays busy. September, 2007, found Manrique back at school and at a thirty-hour work week with PAAST, a local firm. She hopes to have her CPA and Bachelor of Accounting (BACC) degree by December, 2009, and start her master’s degree in accounting at Florida International University after that. In the meantime, she plans to increase her involvement in ALPFA—she was the first intern in the Miami chapter—the ALPFA Honor Society, and the Florida International University Accounting Association (FIU-AA), in which she currently is the parliamentarian. Learn more. Grant Thornton: www.grantthornton.com. |
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