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| Southwest Baptist University Department of Accounting summer interns for the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., are Pearl Karamitros, 2012; Jordan Taylor, 2011; and Meg Goodman, 2013. Only one intern is selected for the organization’s accounting department each summer, and SBU students have been selected for that position three years in a row now. |
Southwest Baptist University News
Release
Contact:
Charlotte Marsch, Director of Marketing and Communications
(417)
328-1803 / cmarsch@sbuniv.edu
SBU accounting student to intern
with Heritage Foundation
Third year in a row for SBU student
to be selected
BOLIVAR, Mo. — For the third year in a row, a
Southwest Baptist University accounting major has been chosen for the prestigious
Heritage Foundation Internship Program in Washington, D.C.
Meg
Goodman, a junior accounting major from Cape Girardeau, Mo., will spend this
summer in Washington, D.C., as the only intern in the accounting department of
the Heritage Foundation. Pearl Karamitros, a senior accounting and
international business major from Fort Worth, Texas, who grew up in China,
interned during the summer of 2012. Jordan Taylor, a senior marketing and
economics/finance major from Greenfield, Mo., interned in 2011.
Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute with a mission to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values and a strong national defense, according to its website.
“This is a
very prestigious opportunity because the Heritage Foundation fits in with many
of the ideals of SBU,” said Wayne Clark, chairman of the SBU Accounting
Department and an assistant professor of accounting.
“It is pretty universally accepted in D.C. as the best internship for conservatives,” Taylor said.
While these students’ internships include gaining hands-on experience in accounting in a business environment, they also are given many opportunities to learn conservative ideology and its founding principles.
“It showed me what I want to do in my free time and opened me up to being more politically informed,” Karamitros said. “It made me value a free economy and those economic principles.”
The students said their studies at SBU prepared them well for the internship.
“SBU makes us work hard,” Karamitros said. “You are used to working hard and used to being respectful. Our success at getting so many interns in the Heritage Foundation is a combination of individual drive and how SBU has helped foster that.”
Goodman said being notified of the internship that runs from June 3 through Aug. 9 “felt really surreal” — and fulfills a dream. Since she was in eighth grade, she has wanted to spend the summer between her junior and senior years of college in Washington, D.C.
“But it doesn’t really feel like it is actually happening,” she said. “I have worked the past two summers in the accounting department at a manufacturing plant, working in cost and managerial accounting. I’m hoping to see a different side of accounting.”
Karamitros, who will graduate in May and already has secured a job with KPM CPAs in Springfield, Mo., beginning in August, told Goodman that having an internship in Washington, D.C., on her resume will make a difference when she is looking for a job after graduation.
“When they see Washington, D.C., on your resume, it helps them see you as a more well-rounded person,” she said. “It helps them see some of your interpersonal skills.”
After graduation in May 2014, Goodman plans to take the CPA exam and work in public accounting in either Springfield or St. Louis.
Taylor has been called into missions and plans to use business as a tool for missions. He will spend two months in the Philippines this summer in preparation for spending the spring 2014 semester there doing research on financial literacy as part of his Honors Capstone project. His internship with the Heritage Foundation, he said, helped him to figure out how he could blend business with his calling into missions.
“Having these three students chosen for this
internship is impressive because the Heritage Foundation only hires one student
intern in accounting each summer,” said Dr. Troy Bethards, associate professor
of business administration and, as of June 1, dean of the College of Business
and Computer Science. “It gives affirmation to the quality of our program and
our students.”
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