Finding Finance

I’m not going to lie, trying to come up with a post about my experience has been hard. I know most people write in regards to a specific event, and I guess I could. I could write about waking up ridiculously early to decorate sailor hats with little kids and how it warmed my heart seeing them learn ballet. Or how eye-opening and fantastic my first ballet was, or even better the second when I got to stand on stage. I could write about the panel I attended on Fancy Free and the appreciation I gained for the history of that show. And although these experiences seemed once in a lifetime for me, it does not help summarize my day to day life in the Finance department.

Let me start by saying I learned an incredible amount of stuff, about non-profits, about accounting, about people. Every day I would walk into the office wave hello to good ol’ Marianne, and sit at my little desk positioned in between my boss Godwin and Talisa, who worked in student billing. Now my desk was small, but I don’t think I would have wanted another. It was great being right in the middle of everything, where I could turn and talk to anyone to ask for help, or just to see how their day was going. Then you can’t forget about Sandy and Shawn. Sandy works in Payroll and Shawn is the CFO. These people shaped my experience and really welcomed me into the office with open arms. Now, we do a lot in Finance, we process the bank statements and payroll entries, we form the budget and execute the absurdly long tax form for non-profits, we process checks, and make sure that every student pays for the classes that they take.

Somehow, among all of that there are always these breaks in the day where everyone’s crazy kind of comes out a bit. Now my boss always jokes that everyone there is crazy but it is hard to believe until you look up and see him playing with a light saber (of which he forgot what it was called) at his desk. Or anytime Marianne talked about Estonia, or well anything. She also keeps a hammer on her desk to hammer down the staples on really thick packets of paper. Or when you hear Sandy shout about something or sing out to her 90’s tunes. Talisa, I would say is pretty normal but I am waiting for it to come out. They kept me on my toes, and helped the time go quick while learning a lot. Because, under all of this “crazy”, they are some of the most genuine people and were so patient and helpful in teaching me. It’s unfortunate that my semester is coming to an end, it’s probably the quickest one I have experienced. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity to work with such crazy yet incredible people.

Alissa Santolo

Finance Intern

Fall 2018