Business, Management & Administration

Brandy Powell

Accountant

High School: Marion Senior High School ('01)

Career & Technical Ed. Program studied: Accounting / Advanced Accounting

Additional Studies/Training: Emory & Henry College, Business Management Major

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.”