Accounting and Finance Major Selected for Internship Preparation Program

Ethan Orange, a junior majoring in accounting and finance, was selected to participate in a recent internship preparation program from the Illinois CPA Society and the CPA Endowment Fund of Illinois.

Orange was one of 41 scholars from around Illinois who applied and were selected to take part in the award-winning Mary T. Washington Wylie Internship Preparation Program, a three-day virtual experience held Jan. 3-5. The aim of the program is to help racial and ethnic minority college students who are interested in pursuing careers in accounting.

Networking opportunities, guidance in creating resumes, interview coaching, and professional workshops were all part of the event. For Orange, interviews with representatives of four corporations held to an internship offer with Grant Thorton LLP.

“This program helped me expand my professional network, as well as provide a gateway for various internship opportunities with well-known accounting firms,” Orange noted. “It also helped push me to pursue becoming a CPA. I learned all the benefits of getting a CPA (certification) and how having it will provide me with opportunities to move to higher management positions.”

Orange hopes to attend graduate school to pursue an MBA.

“One day, I hope to work my way up in a company to become a CEO or CFO,” he said.