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Poole College Senior Johna Edmonds Selected for KPMG International Internship

Johna Edmonds, a senior in the North Carolina State University Poole College of Management, has been selected for the KPMG Global Internship program. She will be working in Paris, France, during the spring 2012 semester with some of the firm’s largest and best-known clients.

Edmonds was invited to apply for the international internship after being accepted for a position as Winter Tax Intern with KPMG in Raleigh, N.C.

KPMG’s Global Internship Program will be Edmonds’ third international experience since enrolling at NC State. She studied at a language-intensive university in Buenos Aires during the spring semester of her junior year.

During her senior year, she participated in an alternative spring break trip to Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic, working through the university’s Center for Student Leadership, Ethics, and Public Service (CSLEPS). While there, she taught grade school students in Spanish, using lesson plans that she had developed with the goal of helping to demystify the English language for the children.

“After fulfilling my desires to study abroad for educational and service work, I knew the next goal I wanted to achieve would be to work in the accounting field abroad. When KPMG offered me this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I knew this was my chance and that I had to take it,” she said.

Edmonds is graduating in May 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, a concentration in financial analysis and a minor in Spanish language and literature. She plans to start in the Master of Accounting Program at the NC State Poole College’s Jenkins Graduate School in fall 2012.

She said that she decided to enroll in NC State during her senior year of high school.

“I knew that I wanted to be a part of a large university that had a small university feel, and NC State offered the best of both worlds. In the midst of the prestigious Research Triangle Park, five minutes away from downtown Raleigh and our state’s capital with some of the most influential people in North Carolina, I knew Raleigh was exactly where I wanted and needed to be,” she said.

“After visiting the campus, meeting the people and many of the professors, learning about all the amazing organizations and diverse opportunities NC State had to offer, I was sold and knew this great institution would one day become my alma mater,” she said.

Edmonds decision to study accounting was influenced initially by a family friend who was a former partner with KPMG. His passion for the profession was reinforced by one of her professors at Poole College, Scott Showalter, also a former KPMG partner.

“I truly believe the accounting professors are Poole’s College of Management greatest assets,” Edmonds said. “They really challenge their students and give them real world projects and assignments that allow them to take a glimpse into the actual world of accounting, and to see what they will encounter once they enter into the business world,” she said.

“I have gained interpersonal, teamwork, and communication skills as a result of my major choice, as well as a substantial body of knowledge on how to apply technology to everyday course work,” she said.

“Not only are these professors very successful in their own careers, but they are also remarkably personable,” Edmonds added. “I have yet to encounter a professor who is not willing to put in the extra effort to help a student, and that’s what I really love about the professors in the accounting department. Without these professors, I would not have the knowledge or ability to have gained the internship at KPMG, Raleigh nor the Global Internship in Paris, France. “

Edmonds has been setting goals for herself from a young age, when her mother, Faye Carter of Lumberton, N.C., encouraged her interest in performing. “Since the age of three, when I performed in my first dance recital, I knew that I had a special God-given talent to entertain, which has been evident with my participation in the Miss America Pageant system,” she said.

Recently crowned the 53rd Miss Garner, Edmonds plans to compete in the 2012 Miss North Carolina Scholarship pageant in June. “Winning the Miss North Carolina crown will not only fulfill my childhood dream, but will also be a testament to the fortitude and strength my mom has imparted unto me.”

“Growing up in a single parent home in rural Lumberton, North Carolina, my mom has been my constant source of strength,” Edmonds said. “She has epitomized excellence and hard work (and) is the positive influence that keeps me grounded as a person. Encompassing an independent attitude coupled with an ambitious drive, she has set the stage for my personal desire to become chief financial officer for KPMG.” Her internship in KPMG’s offices in France is another step toward that goal.

Edmonds graduated from Lumberton Senior High School. Her parents are Faye Carter and John Daniel Edmonds Jr.