Success Stories

Patrice Harris Shelton - Registrar

Everything's In Order

Corporations, institutions, and public agencies all depend on accurate files, records and correspondence. That’s why people in clerical roles play such a big part in how smoothly an organization runs.

Patrice Harris Shelton is just such a person. She is in a key administrative support position, where she is responsible for maintaining accurate records and protecting the confidentiality of those files.

Although employed full-time, Patrice is taking classes in the Mary Baldwin distance-learning degree program. And while her CTE classes certainly play a part in her current job, Patrice notes that “I’ve found my CTE classes help me even more with my college load—communicating with professors and writing papers!”

Brandy Powell - Accountant

Figuring Out a Career

“I knew I liked math & numbers,” says Brandy Powell, “but I didn’t know how I wanted to use that [in a career].”

The answer for Brandy proved to be a Career Pathways class at Marion Senior High. “That class let you see what you were interested in, and see what you might be better at. That’s actually how I got interested in accounting.”

As it turns out, it wasn’t just math class that helped Brandy refine her skills. “One thing that really helped me become good at math was FBLA [Future Business Leaders of America]; there were lots of different competitions that got me involved. I did an accounting competition where we made a manual that had different facts about accounting, and we had to submit a report. That won regional, then placed statewide, and then made it to the nationals…. Being involved in FBLA also helped me open up more. I was kind of quiet and shy—then eventually I became president of FBLA & led the school in competitions!”

After her successes in the FBLA competitions, Brandy says “I started looking at different colleges with accounting programs.”

The college she chose was Emory & Henry, where she completed a Business Management major with an emphasis in accounting. Of her college studies, she says, “at first it was kind of the same thing: a broader knowledge of the same information we covered in high school. Then it became more technical—taxes, auditing, cost accounting, and things like that.”

In both high school and college, Brandy rounded out her classroom studies with on-the-job experiences. “Being involved in a business co-op program meant you were out in the real world working for someone. In high school, I worked at an insurance company through the business co-op program at school doing general office-related tasks. One summer I worked for general dynamics as an accounting intern; I helped the financial analyst with various tasks. And I worked through the last year of college with Washington County Service authority as an accounting intern, doing different accounting tasks.”

Diamond Mitchell - Accountant

Summer Jobs Prove to be a Vital Part of this Student’s Career Growth

Diamond Mitchell has a real knack for accounting—but discovered that in a roundabout way.

In 12th grade, she went to Chesterfield Technical Center to take a Legal Systems Administration class. “It had an accounting part to it, “ explains Diamond, “and that’s when I became interested in accounting. The first semester taught you business things like contracts, torts, and other legal documents. In second semester, I had a chance to take internship with a local law firm. It started as a six-month unpaid internship, but then they brought me on as a paid employee.”

Two days after graduating from high school, Diamond began a summer job in the office of a major power company, and has continued her summer employment there as she attends college.

Diamond has discovered that those summer jobs have contributed directly to her career skills. “I’ve worked doing bill servicing, accounting, and collection calls…I’ve learned invoicing and time entry.” They’ve also helped her define her interests even further: “I like numbers, and things like time entry and auditing let me deal a lot with numbers.”

Entering college, she realized that her high school CTE work had equipped her with a solid foundation.

“It really helped me a lot. When I started my business environment class in college, I found out that I already knew a lot of the material!”