In the Jungle; Adrianna Desimone

Thank you for joining us for In The Jungle, where you stay connected to the current students at Pittsburgh State University. Now here's your host, Howard Smith. Welcome to In The Jungle, where we meet the grill as a Pittsburgh State University. I'm your host, Howard Smith, and today we are joined by Adriana D. Simone. I didn't want to mess that up. That's okay. It's a hard one. I understand you're from Broken Arrow. Yes, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. What brought you to Pitt State? There was actually a campus representative from Pittsburgh State that attended my high school, which was Bishop Kelly High School in Tulsa, and he kind of touched on the grill advantage program which offers in state tuition to certain counties. I was drawn to the smaller schools just being from Oklahoma. I looked at Oklahoma State in University of Oklahoma, but I've gone to private school my whole life. So I'm drawn to the smaller class sizes, the smaller faculty to student ratio. Did you make a campus visit before you made a decision? I did. I actually had one friend who went here, so I went up, visited one time with her, and then I had an official tour.

And then ever since then, I'm here. And that made the connection for you. It did. So you're in accounting and internal audit. Yes. Okay. Why that field? I was drawn to the business world, but I wasn't exactly sure of which major to go to because there's obviously marketing accounting. And then everyone says that accounting is a language of business. And I thought that would be a good foundation for me. And then my internship this summer was an internal audit. I started taking a few internal auditing classes and realized, okay, I think this is the route I want to go. So that's why I pursued the minor in internal auditing. Oh, that's cool. Tell me a little bit about the internship. How did you get it? Did you have to do anything specific to get in the program and then maybe what you did in the program? Okay. So Mrs. Casey, which is a professor in the accounting and CIS area, she was teaching an internal auditing course and she invited them to speak to our class. So after their presentation, I was really drawn to them. This is with Conagro Brands. And then later that day, they spoke in front of the Institute of Internal Auditor's Student Chapter.

And I was really drawn to them. I think it was a great opportunity. And then the next day, they held on campus interviews. And I think by the end of the week is when I secured that internship with them. And then over that summer, I went up to Omaha, which is sorry, to backtrack the summer of my junior year. I went to Omaha for a couple of months, worked as a finance intern in their internal audit department. Kind of got a good feel for the company, the atmosphere, what I would be doing. Hopefully, full time loved it. And I'm looking forward to continuing a career with them after graduation. Well, have they offered you a position? They have. Oh, wow. I'll be starting out soon. Yes. No, I will be starting as an associate financial analyst in their internal audit department in like the beginning of June. So. I know when you go into a major, a lot of times you think, I kind of know what I think is. I kind of think I know what they're doing. But then actually, when you sit in the chair, you're going to go, huh. Right. I think probably the biggest, uh-huh moments for me where when people were really understanding of my ideas and they said, hey, you actually have valuable input.

You can contribute to this organization. So that was kind of something that made me feel more at home and said, okay, this is a company. I have a lot of work for. I feel comfortable here. I think I'll be able to grow. They have many career development opportunities. So that was what kind of drew me to it. Well, that's been fantastic experience we're in now. I know you've been involved in a couple of activities too. Some related to your degree and some more social, let's say. Tell me a little bit about the groups that you've been involved with and what you did with those and how, how about, how that maybe that was valuable experience here. Okay. So most recently, probably the past two years as I got into my upper level courses, I joined the Institute of Internal Auditor Student Chapter on campus. I really enjoyed going to those meetings because Mrs. Casey would invite guest speakers. I could learn about internal auditing as a profession, learn about different companies. And from that point, I actually decided to go to the Kansas City meeting. So we went up there this year and we had a guest speaker there as well about internal auditing training.

So you're surrounded by so many people in the work for, so you know, all different seniority levels, so you get that exposure networking. And then another organization that has been really valuable to me is Alpha Sigma Alpha Sorority. I think that's been most important to me just because of the leadership opportunities. That's when you kind of get your public speaking skills. You learn how to communicate with 100 different girls and they just really helps you to boost your confidence. So how long, when did you join Alpha Sigma Alpha? My freshman year. So you've actually had that opportunity then to really be involved in that. I've tried as much as I can. It's always tough to balance schoolwork and extracurriculars. I served as housing chair. So when I lived in the sorority house, I was in charge of making sure that the girls get all their chores done a peaceful living environment. So that was a little bit of a challenge, but you know, even the smallest roles like that, you learn how to communicate, you learn how to be assertive, things like that. And then I've served on the finance committee. So I've enjoyed like helping with the budget, working with the treasure. And that's more related to my degree.

So I really enjoyed that. No, that's actually been a great addition to your experience here at Pitt State. In your field and accounting and internal audit, what course has challenged you the most? Oh, there have been many that have challenged me that. You can throw out a couple if you want. Yeah, I think anytime you get into the upper level courses like Advanced Financial 2, Intermediate Accounting, I think the professors here really do a good job of making sure that they're constantly pushing you to be your best. You're going to spend a lot of time outside of the classroom learning the material, which is, you know, in the moment is super difficult and it can be frustrating. But then once you've completed that course, you know, it's a huge accomplishment and you come out with so much more. Hey, who's influenced you while you've been on campus? You've talked about some people in your comments already, but if you had to identify maybe a person or two, who's had a really good influence on you? I would have to say Mrs. Casey, so she's one of the professors in the internal audit and accounting area and she is the leader of the internal auditor student chapter.

And she really is just going above and beyond as far as helping me with the internship. I try to maintain contact with her throughout. We always touch base and she just really cares about her students. She's retiring at the end of this year. So that's, you know, that's good for her, but it'll be a loss for Pitt State. And I just can't make her enough for everything she's done for me. Well, that's fantastic. What advice would you give to a prospective student considering Pitt State today? What would you tell them about, you know, you got to, you got to take a look at Pitt State. I would just say to be open-minded a lot of the times students are looking for a bigger city. They want fun things to do all the time. So I would just, you know, let them know that Pitt State does offer so many different organizations. There's constantly on campus events. But the most important thing is that you come out with a good quality education. And I would say that the professors here are second to none. The community feel everyone touches on that once a gorilla, always a gorilla. I just think that's very hard to find.

And I'm glad that I chose Pitt State. That proves why you belong at Pittsburgh State University. Thank you for joining us in the jungle, Adrianna, I think for being on the show today. I'm your host, Howard Smith. Join us for in the jungle, Wednesday afternoons at 350 and Friday mornings at 850 here on KRPS.