Daybrook Grad Earned Her Way

Laura Yost is modest. She will tell you that she’s not much different from most students at West Virginia University. She might be right, if most students paid their own way through college, are president of their fraternity and had internships with two of the largest audit, tax and advisory firms in the world – one of which she will be working for full time starting in August.

Yost, a 2008 accounting graduate from Daybrook, W.Va., put in enough hard work in high school to allow her to receive the Promise Scholarship, the Lynch Scholarship, and the Greater Morgantown Community Trust Scholarship. These covered tuition, books, and fees, but any WVU student can tell that there are more expenses in college than just those.

To help offset some of those costs, Yost has worked in the information technology department of the College of Business and Economics for three years. She also had paid summer internships at Ernst & Young and KPMG. She said balancing school with work is well worth the effort. “I feel the experience I have gained through work experience and time and money management is well worth a fraction of a GPA point.”

Yost downplays the difficulty of finding this balance as being nothing out of the ordinary, but concedes that it has been time consuming. “A lot of students have to work while going to school full time to pay for the expenses related to college. It is definitely more than a full-time job to work and study and go to class and be involved in a student organization,” she said.

'It is definitely more than a full-time job to work and study and go to class and be involved in a student organization.' - Laura Yost

That student organization Yost refers to is Alpha Kappa Psi, a co-ed professional business fraternity for which Yost serves as the president. Her involvement has taught her valuable lessons on professionalism and networking.

Yost’s appreciation of the value of these lessons, which can often go overlooked, is extraordinary. “If I didn’t have to work, then I would obviously have more time to devote to my studies,” she said. “However, I feel that I have benefited from this and wouldn’t change my experiences. You learn to better manage time and resources, and I feel this has made me overall more experienced, well-rounded, and ready for the real world.”

Being ready for the real world for Yost means preparing to work for KPMG, the New York based audit, tax and advisory firm that has locations in 145 countries and turned a $19.8 billion dollar profit in 2007. While this is an incredible opportunity, Yost tries to see it as the next logical step. “If you work your way through school you are ‘toughened up’ to an extent just because there aren’t as many new things you have to deal with when you leave college because you have already dealt with paying bills and being independent all through school already.”

And she has a deep appreciation to her professors who were “very knowledgeable and experienced and have added great value to my educational experience."

“Dr. Pushkin’s auditing theory class paired with my on-the-job training at KPMG have made me confident in my abilities to become an auditor. Dr. Neidermeyer’s personal financial advising class has taught me a lot about important investing, insurance, and purchasing decisions that I will need to be making once I'm out of college. And, I have learned a great deal in Dr. Dawley’s management classes,” she said.

Yost suggests that younger students network as much as possible, get involved at B&E, plan ahead for internship and job opportunities, and of course, just have fun while they do it.

Benjamin Patrick Joyce, communications intern  4-08