katie harris

I'm Katie Harris, an energetic fourth-year student at the Orfalea College of Business at Cal Poly, with a planned graduation date of June 2024. After graduation I plan to get my CPA and then advance my career in audit and assurance. I'm eager to immerse myself in the business world in hopes of learning some, if not all, of the secrets to success. In so doing, I aim to benefit myself, the people on my team, and my employer. My passions lie in accounting but I'm also interested in information systems and finance. At Cal Poly, I took a wide range of classes and gradually discovered my passion. In my first accounting course, I was introduced to financial statements and learned how to read and interpret them. I've always loved puzzles and reviewing financial statements felt quite similar. Each piece of the statement connects with another, eventually revealing the true financial position and performance of the company. Likewise, in my managerial accounting class, I learned how to use those same puzzle pieces to create a new picture, by introducing a new strategy to improve company performance. These classes, along with others, de-mystified financial accounting by acquainting me with the language of business, a necessity when trying to find areas for improvement and creating solutions.

Durring my sophmore year summer, I was a business management intern at Marvin Engineering, an aerospace and defense contractor. I worked in different business departments including sales, contracts, program management, and finance, and learned exactly how each sector works together to maximize efficiency and productivity. Durring this internship, I was given the opportunity to personally conduct audits with clients. Shadowing professionals in the finance department taught me how important it is to account for the future by looking at different market trends, conducting research on past performance and creating models to illustrate future performance. 

In my junior year summer I worked at BDO in the Los Angeles office as an uadit and assurance intern. Interning at BDO offered me a deep dive into the world of audit and assurance and taught me about the audit process and the importance of audit data analytics. I also was assigned to work with engagement teams with clients in manufacturing, brokerage services, and technology. 

I am a senior at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo majoring in Business with a concentration in accounting. The relevant accounting courses I have taken are Intermediate Accounting, Accounting Information systems, Financial and Managerial Accounting, Taxation, Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, and Statistical Inference for Management I and II. These classes have taught me that my passions lie in accounting which is why I plan on getting my CPA after I graduate in June 2024 and then continuing a career in Audit.