Less than a year after she received her ‘Berg bachelor’s degree, Victoria Amburgey has completed a second: her master’s degree in accounting at Bowling Green State University. She was the recipient of the 2015 scholarship through the Berg-Falcon Master of Accountancy Scholarship Program.
“It was an intense 10 months,” says Victoria, who completed graduate assistant responsibilities and supplemented her income by also working a nearly full-time job at Lowe’s in Tiffin.
Although her coursework is complete, Victoria is wasting no time moving right into the working world. Later this month, she’ll be off to Cleveland to complete orientation for her new position with Sherwin Williams. She will become an internal field auditor, and is currently waiting to find out in which of Sherwin Williams’ 67 U.S. zones she’ll be placed.
To get to this point, Victoria says she “spent lots of late nights and drank lots of coffee” in preparation for a heavy academic load that included four challenging classes for two semesters and two accelerated classes in a six-week summer session.
She took advantage of a huge job fair at BGSU, where she interviewed with five employers on the spot, landing the position with Sherman Williams.
“I never thought I’d actually have a job right away,” says Victoria, who majored in business administration and accounting at Heidelberg. “Looking back, it was easier than I thought it would be.”
Perhaps that’s because she worked extremely hard during both her undergraduate and graduate programs. She credits Heidelberg with bringing her out of her shell and helping her improve her interpersonal interactions.
“When I went to the interviews, I was a lot more outgoing and confident,” she says.
On campus, Victoria was super involved in Greek life, Student Senate and School of Business organizations. It didn’t hurt that she completed an awesome internship with ‘Berg alumnus Ken Fruscella, ’84, at Bardons & Oliver in Solon, Ohio, during the summer between her junior and senior years.
With her first job already lined up, the sky’s the limit for Victoria. She will likely pursue her CPA and possibly even a Ph.D. “With the CPA, I feel like I’d be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t go back and try for it,” she says. Ultimately, she’d like to become a partner in an auditing firm or possibly work in organizational behavior or management.
“I just feel extremely lucky and blessed,” she says.