 But then I finally had my first accounting course and also even taking my math courses in college as well. And my accounting course was my accounting tool one. It was my favorite course I had taken thus far in college. And I was so like it was just my favorite class. Like I was in the class. I raised my hand every single day. I was answering all the questions. Like I was excited to do the homework. I was even excited to help other people in my class understand how to do it. And I just fell in love with it from my very first class. And I was like, I want this to be my major. So everyone today I'm going to be interviewing Attila. She's an MBA student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Attila, she graduated as the outstanding accountant in her program. And she attended the second most diverse high school in the nation, Central High in Philadelphia. She just completed an internship with EY. And today she's going to talk to us about the scholarship that she was awarded by the PICPA Foundation. Thank you for agreeing to meet with us today, Attila. Yes, thank you for having me. Absolutely. Can you tell us how did you learn about the scholarship opportunity first? My professors in my accounting department at IUP actually informed us about the PICPA and about like the scholarship opportunities and just some of the other things they had to offer. And because I was involved in some of the accounting, the organizations on campus, they also encouraged us like, you know, like they have scholarships, you guys will qualify for them. Like it's a good opportunity. So I decided to apply for two of the scholarships. I applied for the diversity and the general scholarship and I was actually awarded a scholarship. Excellent. So would you say encourage students to join clubs on campus and get involved? Would you strongly agree to that statement? Yes, actually one of the biggest things that helped in my career was getting involved in some of the clubs and organizations on campus. I would say you really need like it's really a key part of your resume. A key aspect for you to just learn more about accounting because accounting isn't just you go into college. It's also you having to get extra credits, 150 credits. You have to get your CPA exam and things like that. So we are in these organizations that can help you through the process. So you know what to do. Absolutely. It's a support system and it's going to open many doors for you. So that's what you should do as an accounting student. Join various accounting clubs, business clubs on campus. Have as much exposure as possible. And let's talk about your recent internship at EY. So we're assuming you're going into public accounting and you're going to be soon Attila Elise CPA. Yes. So my hopefully in a couple months from now, I hope that my credentials will be Attila CPA comma MBA. So I did intern with EY over the summer. So I'm going into assurance, the audit part of accounting. That's what really grabbed my attention. And it was my internship was amazing. It was really great. I was able to meet with like partners from the firm in Philadelphia as well. So it was like, it was a nice size office of EY. And I was able to work on the engagement team. And we had a very, very large client in the medical field that that manufactures parts that like hospitals and things like that use. And it was very, very interesting work. Honestly, like I really liked it. That's the beauty of accounting, especially public accounting. It's that exposure, that exposure. But let's go back to high school. Why did you choose accounting in the first place? What was your motivation? Why did you go for that major? Or maybe you did not know, could you tell us a little bit more about that? Yes. So I'll tell you guys a little bit about how I even got into accounting. So when I first started in high school, I knew I wanted to work in business. So I actually started IUP as a general management major. So I was taking the management classes. And then I was like, this, and I kind of, this was just me, but it wasn't really challenging as I wanted it to be. So I was like, okay, I'm going to add another major. And I added human resource management. And then I was doing human resource management and management. And then, and I mean, it was fine. I was getting good grades. But then I finally had my first accounting course and also even taking my math courses in college as well. And my accounting course was my accounting tool one. It was my favorite course I had taken thus far in college. And I was so like, it was just my favorite class. Like I was in the class, I raised my hand every single day. I was answering all the questions, like I was excited to do the homework. I was even excited to help other people in my class understand how to do it. And I just fell in love with it from my very first class. And I was like, I want this to be my major. Well, you made the right choice. I can assure you about that. So soon, maybe a year from now or year and a half, you'll start to complete your exams and start to get more comfortable in your position. Anything else you would like to add to any advice to either accounting majors, people who are not sure about what they want to do, or just encourage them to apply for the scholarship at the PICPA, get involved, any last word about this place? Well, I would encourage the students in the business school and students who are interested in accounting is to really find what you like in business. So for me, it was accounting, of course. And after you find what you like, make sure that you get involved. So I, like I said, I only became an accounting student in my sophomore year. And by my senior year, I was the president of the National Association of Black Accountants on campus. So between just those two years, I was able to get to know people in the field, go to workshops, talk to people, my professor, my accounting professors, they had Excel workshops. And even when I started working at EY over the summer as an intern, we used Excel. So it's like things like that you really, it might not just be things in your class, but also things outside of class that have to do with your future career. All of those things are very helpful. And then as well as programs like the PICPA offers, the PICPA, they help when I was able to get the scholarship. When I got the scholarship, it was actually right after I graduated and I was starting grad school. So I was able to use a scholarship to help pay for housing over the summer while I was doing my grad classes. So it's things like that. And then also, while you're in accounting, you have to remember, you're not just a regular student in the way that you need 150 credits. You want to work at a firm or intern and things like that. So when you're in these programs, because your classes aren't going to say, oh, you need to get extra 30 credits or you need to apply for these programs. If you're involved on campus and if you're speaking with CPAs and professionals, then they will help you to learn those things that you need to do. And that's what really helped me in my career is connecting with professionals, getting into programs like the PICPA and getting involved with the membership and those types of programs to help you be on the right track to start your career. Excellent. So expand your horizon, network, learn about anything that you can learn about at every opportunity to get involved in clubs. Attila, thank you very much for your time. We greatly, greatly appreciate it. And I'm pretty sure you're going to be, you're going to have those three letters behind your name and more victories to come. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Sure.