Kayliah Shearn-Foster, a first-year intern at W. M. Jordan, is spending her summer working with the accounting team in our Newport News, Virginia, office.
A native of Yorktown, Virginia, Kayliah is a rising junior at Christopher Newport University studying Business Accounting, making her internship with the WMJ accounting team a perfect fit to help prepare her for a career after college.
“I have always been strong with numbers,” said Shearn-Foster. “I love that you can use numbers to solve problems that otherwise you wouldn’t be able to solve.”
So far, her biggest takeaway from her summer with #WMJ is the major difference between construction accounting compared to working with a CPA or a more traditional tax firm.
“Construction accounting is different in that you are working with multiple companies and using an industry specific software that is designed for construction needs. I’m not auditing companies like I would working for a traditional firm of CPAs. I spend a lot of time working with Roxie Paramore on W. M. Jordan’s general ledger which has helped me learn a lot about cash flow for jobs and how we manage large projects.”
Another benefit of her summer internship with W. M Jordan is that Kayliah has been able to apply what she is learning in the classroom in real world scenarios.
“My experience has related to what I’ve learned in school. I love getting to enter invoices and learning more about the different costs associated with each job. I am applying principles of accounting from the classroom into real world situations and getting to see how a large company handles the complex world of finances.”
Kayliah has also taken this summer to learn more about the opportunities available in the accounting world.
“The best part of this summer has been getting to work with the amazing accounting team here. Everyone contributes to get the job done, and it has really shown me there are many different roles available in the world of accounting depending on what you enjoy doing.”
With our clients, partners, and community, W. M. Jordan strives for the relentless pursuit of excellence.
