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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.
“SBU
has provided our department with knowledgeable and professional accounting
interns during the previous two years,” said Keith Capp, a staff accountant
with Heritage Foundation. “Our experience from working with Jordan and
Pearl in their internships has raised the profile of SBU applicants, and we
look forward to working with Meg when she starts her internship in June.”
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.
About 70 students across the country are
chosen for internships in various departments of the organization.
“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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Southwest
Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating
Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at
an affordable price. At SBU, the faculty and staff create a caring, academic
community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. For
more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.
