Across the Country to NC State

Hi, my name is Jessica and I am a student in the 2020 Jenkins MAC Class. I’ll be writing a few blogs this year to give you all a little inside look on what the MAC class is up to! I’d like to start this one off by telling you a little about myself.

Who Am I?

I am a born and raised California girl, grew up in Bakersfield and spent my summers in Pismo Beach. I decided to try something new when looking at schools for my undergrad and landed at Colorado State University (GO RAMS!). I did an internship after graduation with RSM in Denver and just signed my full-time offer with them. Outside of the classroom I enjoy traveling, playing sand volleyball and going to concerts. Side note: Colorado totally ruined me because Red Rocks is the most breathtaking venue ever hands down and if you ever get the chance you should go! I am also a die-hard football fan. If there is a home game you can bet I’ll be cheering them on from the stands!

 How did I end up at NC State?

It’s pretty random actually! I have always been infatuated with the idea of living in North Carolina and just started doing some research. Raleigh consistently came up in my searches as one of the best places to live. The NC State Jenkins MAC stood out to me from the other programs because of the offering of unique concentrations (I chose Enterprise Risk Management), the option to study abroad in Prague for a summer and the use of practicums to allow students some real world application. The program also focuses your classes each semester on sections of the CPA exam and will provide Becker to those not having it covered by a firm. The CPA exam is such a huge focus for my life right now so having it built into the semester is really appealing.

One month down!

The first two weeks of the semester were filled with a Data Analytics Bootcamp which was interesting and packed with information. Coming from out of state I was worried about fitting in with the NC State students but almost half of the program are people just like me coming from other undergrad programs! Everyone got put in one big GroupMe to stay in the loop with fun things going on and class information. We planned a pizza party and a MAC tailgate that was pretty successful and was a good way to get to know more people. I am also a graduate assistant for the MAC team and have been able to help out with some of the campus recruiting. The job hunt here is structured really well and it’s been fun to be a part of those events.

Well that’s all I’ve got for now! Check back in later for more updates about how the semester is going and to see all the fun stuff the MAC program has going on. If you want to stay really up to date, follow our IG @ncstatemac! (or just insta stalk us, that’s cool too, we’ve all been there).