After graduating from her MBA program in 2013, Amy Smith realized how great it is to have Shenandoah University connections. Smith is a human resources generalist at Yount, Hyde, & Barbour, P.C., (YHB) a regional public accounting firm headquartered in Winchester, Virginia. She first encountered the firm due to a mandatory assignment in Associate Dean R.T. Good’s class. The assignment was to attend a local Winchester Area Society for Human Resource Management (WASHRM) meeting, where she did some life-changing networking and discovered a path to a career she loves!
Thanks to the connections she built upon courtesy of Dr. Good’s assignment, Smith received the WASHRM scholarship for the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) Certification test prep course in 2014. While in the course, she found herself in the company of a fellow Shenandoah graduate and a Shenandoah staff member: Jesse Nichols ’11, a former lacrosse player who graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration; and Karen O’Neil, who is currently a transfer admissions counselor at Shenandoah University.
“All three of us passed our Professional in Human Resources exam!” exclaimed Smith. “The PHR is the first of two career certifications one may achieve, and the pass rate is only 59 percent.”
The Shenandoah network doesn’t end there. As Smith points out, “I’m part of an amazing three-person HR team, and we all have our [Shenandoah] MBA.”
It seems she is never too far from a Shenandoah graduate. Will Murphy ’04, YHB’s training manager and former WASHRM president, earned his MBA at the Harry F. Byrd, Jr., School of Business. Two of the firm’s accountants are alumni: Jacob Pendergraft ’13, a former member of the USA South championship baseball team, received his MBA from the Byrd School, and Hannah Oakes ’12, a former member of the women’s soccer team, received her BBA from the Byrd School and later received her master’s in accounting from James Madison University. Oakes is now a licensed certified public accountant (CPA) and Pendergraft is only one test away from becoming a CPA.
“We constantly see Shenandoah University graduates succeeding,” says Smith, “which keeps us motivated and energized to continue to make the Byrd School of Business and all of the professors and administrators proud.”