The Student Accounting Association invited professionals from PNC Bank to speak at their second meeting of the semester on Thursday September 26, and 58 accounting majors attended.
PNC, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has a worldwide presence with approximately $406 billion in assets, $273 billion in deposits, and over 8 million customers. There are over 2,300 branches and over 53,000 people employed by the bank. PNC actively recruits IUP accounting majors and held on-campus interviews on Friday, September 27.
Three of the PNC professionals who came to speak to the students included Michael Niggel, finance governance and oversight manager; Allie Collier, campus recruiter, and Kiara Nappenbach, vice president, business analytics manager senior. Accounting alumna Samantha Frye ’19 also spoke to the students.
From left: Anna Skidmore, regulatory risk specialist (PNC); Matthew DeCesare, SAA president; Allie Collier, campus recruiter (PNC); Megan Rangers, IUP senior accounting major; and Kiara Nappenbach, vice president, business analytics manager senior (PNC)
Niggel spoke to the students about their three-month summer internship program, which begins with a two-day “Summer Summit.” In this session, interns are introduced to executives and listen to various presentations throughout the day. The interns are also able to network with fellow interns and build meaningful relationships. Each intern is paired with a mentor for the duration of the summer. During the internship, interns are given meaningful work alongside of a capstone project. At the end of the summer, a presentation is given to bring a close to the capstone project and internship. Along with the project and meaningful work, there are a host of networking events and resources for interns to access online and on the jobsite.
Niggel also provided information on the Finance and Accounting Development Program. The FADP lasts 12–15 months. Employees rotate between three departments: Line of Business Support, Shared Services, Control, and Other.
Nappenbach spoke about the 10-week Independent Risk and Management Program. The IRMDP focuses on protecting the bank from failure, also known as inherent risk. Interns are given meaningful and demanding work to complete, including a capstone project. At the end of the internship, PNC considers outstanding interns for a full-time position. If hired, an intensive six-week training program covers various areas of PNC, including credit, overview, and technologies of the bank.
Samantha Frye, a 2019 IUP accounting alumna and FADP analyst, spoke about the program and how well it has informed her about the various departments within PNC.
Anna Skidmore, regulatory risk specialist, also spoke about her position at PNC. She currently leads the risk reporting framework at the bank.
Current SAA President Matthew DeCesare completed a 2019 summer internship at PNC and has accepted a full-time position upon graduation in spring 2020 in the Independent Risk Management Program.
ABOUT THE STUDENT ACCOUNTING ASSOCIATION
The Student Accounting Association is open to all IUP students interested in learning more about the accounting profession. Kim Anderson, professor in the Department of Accounting, serves as the faculty advisor.
The next SAA meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 15, at 5:00 p.m. in the Eberly auditorium. The featured speaker will be Joanna Fetzer Sutton, a 1994 IUP accounting graduate, who began her career at KPMG followed by a nearly 20-year career at Westinghouse Electric Company, where she started with traditional accounting roles and later transformed into expanded roles including marketing and strategy development. She is currently an entrepreneur-in-residence at the University of Pittsburgh where she focuses on mentorship and development of innovation and entrepreneurship with students who have ideas for innovation and are considering launching their own business. She also serves as an adjunct professor in the University of Pittburgh’s Executive MBA program.
Free pizza will be served following the meeting.