Key takeaways: Be relentless, attend all kinds of things, and be kind
When Rachel started applying to accountancy summer internships in the Fall of 2024, she immediately realized what a challenge it was going to be for a student who has taken a nontraditional path to accountancy. Recruiters told her they were already hiring for summer 2026. At the time, Rachel had just switched from a science major and had not yet taken any business classes. She did not let that stop her, however.
“I decided to go all in,” she resolved. Having reached out to two Big Four firms with no success, she put all her focus on KPMG, recognizing that the company’s “people first” culture seemed a good match for her—and, serendipitously, their deadline was next. “I attended all of their recruiting events, spoke often with the campus recruiter, and just really made myself visible. I wrote a cover letter, which I think is, like, literally the most important thing for getting jobs these days.”
This focused approach paid off. Soon she received an internship offer in audit, spending 8 weeks with KPMG’s Chicago office this past summer, which included a 4-day boot camp held at the company’s Lakehouse in Orlando.
From Pre-med to Accountancy
It was not the challenging coursework that caused Rachel to change gears—she received the Joseph A. Culler Award for Excellence in Physics in 2024 and was named Panhellenic Scholar of the Month earlier that year. She had been exploring the different health fields open to her as a pre-med and then as a kinesiology major. She found that in these fields, advancement seemed very much an individual-focused approach, and she wanted to engage in a more team-oriented setting. After job shadowing for more than 250 hours in different healthcare settings and doing almost 150 hours of research, she just felt there was something missing.
“I realized by the end of my sophomore year, wow, I’ve done all this shadowing, and I’ve done all this research, and I don’t want to do either of these things in my life… I need to do something that gives me a hundred different possibilities for what I can do with my job and my career.”
Realizing that she loved learning—regardless of the subject—she turned her attention to practical matters. Rachel wanted a major that would open up a wide range of career opportunities, something that she realized accountancy would be perfect for. Changing majors after her sophomore year was a daunting task, but after a tearful conversation with her parents, they assured her that it was not too late.
She spent the summer of 2024 taking 13 credits in order to transfer to the Farmer School of Business, and joined the First-Year Integrated Core that fall. “It was a crazy time,” she said. At that point, she held a leadership position in the business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi; she was catching up on courses; and she had started a job with Rinella Learning Center. All these, combined with the internship recruiting season, made her first year as an accountancy major very challenging.
Several faculty members and staff also helped Rachel navigate the transition. Amanda Pyzoha helped her plan an accelerated path to the MAcc program, while advisor J Ravancho helped her stay on track with her coursework. David Eyman encouraged her to embrace the challenges of the FYIC, and Jeff Merhout helped her find her path in accounting.
Staying in touch with KPMG
With the internship offer at hand, Rachel wondered what she would do in the intervening years. “So now I have this offer for two years out, do we just say, farewell for now? This is kind of awkward.” She then learned about various programs KPMG offered, and she was selected to join the Global Advantage Program in the summer of 2025, which allowed her to attend a five-day leadership conference in Lisbon, Portugal. “The goal of the program was to diversify student perspectives and help prepare us to be successful professionals,” said Rachel.
Daily programming focused on gaining leadership skills, understanding differences in the business culture of other countries, learning feedback mechanisms, working in teams, and practicing effective time management skills.
Outside of classes, Rachel got to experience Lisbon with the students and instructors, including a catamaran river tour, visiting historic landmarks, and going to the Lisbon Tile Museum. “One of the most memorable parts of my trip to Lisbon was the incredible food and the long-lasting relationships I built with the other students. I still keep in touch with a few of them, and I even got to reunite with them this summer at KPMG Lakehouse. “
From quiet helpfulness to unexpected internship spotlight
Rachel spent her 8-week audit internship with KPMG’s Chicago office focusing on asset management, where she worked on Q2 filings for a real estate investment trust and a real estate services company. As part of the program, she also joined a cohort of 900 interns for a 4-day boot camp at the KPMG Lakehouse in Orlando.
The internship started with an onboarding event—Rachel recalled how the busy day had left the room cluttered with catered food, candy, and papers. She stayed behind, introduced herself to the campus recruiters, and asked if she could help them clean up.
Her simple act did not go unnoticed—a week later, she received an email from KPMG’s PR team, asking if she’d be interested in being interviewed for a Wall Street Journal article about the Lakehouse boot camp. WSJ reporter Allison Pohle was scheduled to cover KMPG’s new training initiative, which aimed to focus on developing critical thinking and professional judgment amid the rise of generative AI in business environments.
“I have never been so surprised in my life,” she said, suspecting her initial act of helpfulness played a key role. “It showed me how important it is to be kind to strangers. I’m sure there were other factors in nature that played a part, but that was the only thing that I could think of.”
Read the WSJ article to learn more about the KPMG boot camp experience
Her internship experience solidified her desire to stay with KPMG:
“I remember the first week on my team being so lost and confused… but by the end, I could have done anything I had been given in the first week. Learning at such a large firm, you get to learn so quickly and see your own growth because of how seriously they take mentoring and coaching. They give you a mentor to ask your ‘stupid questions’ to, which is awesome. I had an amazing mentor and great teams—the people were standout to me.”
After the internship, Rachel was offered a full-time position with KPMG upon graduation. Rachel shared how meaningful it was to receive direct outreach from the CEO of KPMG after her Wall Street Journal feature and when she received her full-time return offer: “I had the opportunity to email back and forth with the CEO… [He] emailed me to congratulate me on my offer… I just felt like they care about their people there. You have the opportunities you need to succeed, and if you take them, there will be important people who want you to succeed and support you in that process.”
Sharing the learning
Back at Miami, Rachel’s two years working at the Rinella Learning Center has revealed that her love of learning goes along with a passion for the learning process—and sharing it with others. This year, she is one of the department’s graduate assistants helping with ACC 222 (Introduction to Managerial Accounting), running two weekly review sessions and holding office hours for student consultations.
“I am really looking forward to my GA position. I am so excited for this job. I’m so excited to teach. I’m so excited to grade, to talk to students, and to be part of their learning journey…Down the line… once I’ve worked for a while, I think I’ll probably go back and get my PhD and become a professor.”
She is also serving a second term as this year’s KPMG ambassador: “My role is to participate in on-campus networking events with KPMG professionals and be a student voice and perspective for potential applicants. I answer questions from students about the application and interview process, the Global Advantage Program, and my internship in Chicago.
Fast Facts: Behind the Scenes with Rachel
Dancing Her Way Through Miami. Rachel has danced her entire life and was one course short of completing Miami’s dance minor, due to course availability. Her recommendation: Take a class with dance instructor Ashley Goos, “an incredible professor who makes her classes so much fun.”
The “Patio App” Plot Twist. Rachel met her best friend when they moved into neighboring freshman dorm rooms—even though they had both seen each other on the Patio app beforehand and initially thought they might not get along.
In Mom’s Footsteps. Rachel jokes that she accidentally followed her mother’s path despite starting as a pre-med major—including attending Miami, joining her sorority Gamma Phi Beta, pursuing accounting, and working for KPMG. Both of her parents are CPAs who met while working at Arthur Andersen.
Serving as a CPA “Guinea Pig.” This semester, Rachel is helping Dr. Michele Frank pilot a new Becker CPA prep program for the REG exam as she prepares for her first CPA exam section in December. She says Dr. Frank has been “a great mentor and source of support” throughout her time at Farmer.