Q. Where are you from, and how did you first hear about Shenandoah University? When did you decide to become a business major, and did you have a particular concentration?
I’m from Boston, Virginia (a town that shares Rappahannock County and Culpeper County borders).
I heard about Shenandoah University over the years because of its proximity to my hometown, which is about an hour away. A friend of mine became an assistant soccer coach at Shenandoah and encouraged me to consider coming to play. After that, I did some research and discovered Shenandoah’s business program.
I became a business major in my freshman year. I always was attracted to marketing, which, to me, was the only concentration inside the business administration major that encourages thinking outside the box.
Q. Tell us about a favorite class or event that you feel has been especially valuable to you upon entering the workforce:
My favorite business class at Shenandoah was one taught by the Dean of the Byrd School, Miles Davis, Ph.D. The class met once a week and was structured non-traditionally. Rather than having a single book for the semester, the class featured reading materials centered on a particular weekly topic. Each class hosted an expert lecturer to speak and lead us in an intellectual exploration of the topic. I feel this process gave me the confidence that I was lacking in order to succeed.
Q. What’s the name of the real estate firm where you work and where is it located?
Carydale Enterprises is an umbrella of over 13 companies that buys, sells and manages apartment buildings in Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax County.
Q. Tell us about your varied duties there:
Carydale Enterprises has 764 apartment units and a staff of seven residential managers, seven maintenance workers, two accountants, a property manager and a CEO. Being one of only two accountants on staff, my duties extend beyond traditional accounting tasks to include many human resource duties: health insurance, payroll, taxes, accounts receivable/payable. We manage over 35 bank accounts.
I also have a role in our in-house-managed IT; that is, our computer and software systems and internet solutions.
From a more managerial perspective, I help manage and handle investors’ relationships and investments. And, for the past few months, I have prepared the financial reports for the investors, board of directors and trustees.
I started out learning a little at a time. I began with filing, which helped me understand where the firm spends money, and why. Starting from the bottom allowed me to see the full picture.
Q. When emailing to Dr. Davis about your job experience, you stated, “The company’s CEO and head property manager have both said they wanted to involve me more.” Can you tell us a bit more about your relationship with these colleagues and how they came to trust and invest in you?
The investors and board members have expressed that they see me as a future leader in the company, not only because of my educational background, but because of my expertise. Besides me, there are only two other people in the company under the age of 30. With an aging staff they are looking to the future. Having spent the last year taking care of assorted accounting tasks effectively, they want to expand my responsibilities, mainly into the property management side.
Each time I present to the board of directors I become more and more comfortable. While preparing the reports is an easy process of plugging in numbers, defending and explaining them to the “sharks” is a challenge. The board needs to understand and be comfortable with the state of accounts, even those that are in the “red.” My job is to justify these numbers.
Q. Share an interesting or significant incident from work:
After a meeting a few months ago, the head property manager (who also presents to the board) came up to me and said, “You have really done an excellent job at making the (financial) reports your own.” The board commented on how “clean” and “easy” it is to read the reports and make decisions. Having come from a business program that taught particular methods of making and reading financial reports, I had applied edits to Carydale’s existing report structure accordingly. My new reports ultimately serve my goal of telling the story of how the business is operating.