When I was 7 years old, I received my first allowance, broken into thirds. One third I could spend, one third went to the bank in savings, and the last third would be invested in the stock market. My dad brought up a spreadsheet and showed me how to track my money and investments. So from the age of 7, I fell in love with numbers and accounting.
During my junior year of high school, I started looking at colleges to attend. I wanted to stay in Washington state to be close to family, but I still wanted to go to a top-notch school with an amazing business program. After doing a lot of research on SPU's School of Business, Government, and Economics, I knew that was where I wanted to go.
The SBGE was appealing to me because of the small class sizes; I like to be engaged in class discussion. Another factor was the School's commitment to ethics and integrity. The "another way of doing business" motto really appealed to me. By the end of my four years, I have a much stronger faith and now feel comfortable praying to God, knowing that he is listening.
I got the financial analyst internship at Amazon.com after a grueling three-hour interview process. I was given real responsibilities, and even earned the Amazon choice award. It's given to one or two accountants a quarter for executing the core Amazon leadership principles of diving deep, showing leadership, taking initiative, delivering results, and being right a lot.
I really enjoyed all of my professors at SPU and they all inspired me in different ways. They always had their door open for questions, would spend time helping me with any concepts I was confused with. They all just had so much passion for their respective subject matters.