Kelsey Ulaskiewicz ’17 is moving to Boston to start a job with KPMG, one of the big four accounting firms.
Kelsey Ulaskiewicz?’17 was a junior when she stood before 50 of her peers in the Atkins Investment Group and, for 90 minutes, tried to convince them that Eaton Vance Mutual Funds would be a worthwhile investment.
“It was a crazy adrenaline rush,” says the recent graduate of the UNH Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics, and it was the highlight of her time with the student-run group, which has more than $200,000 under active asset management.
Her pitch was effective. The group voted to invest in the fund, “and we’ve made a return so far,” says Ulaskiewicz, who majored in business administration with options in accounting and finance. ?
Ulaskiewicz was part of Atkins’ fixed income group.
Sound advice
Kelsey Ulaskiewicz ’17 was a peer advisor for the Paul College FIRE program, where she helped first-year students navigate college life.
“For the whole year, I was in charge of mentoring 25 students — giving them advice on how to pass a class that’s hard or how to email your professor for the first time.”
Through mentoring others, Ulaskiewicz says she learned a whole lot about herself.
“I know how to work with so many different people now because of that and how to be a leader when I’m amongst my peers, which can be difficult,” she says.
Her advice for incoming Paul College students?
“Get involved. There are so many organizations within Paul for you to join. That’s where you’ll meet your best friends.”?
“Some people find fixed income investing boring,” she says. “But it’s what led me into accounting, because I’m good at the nitty-gritty number stuff.”
The Dover, New Hampshire, native describes her experience in the group these last two years as “unreal.”
“It’s given me the most opportunities I could have ever asked for. It’s how I got my job. It’s how I met all these powerful women high up in the business world through our very strong alumni network,” she says. “It’s just awesome. Joining that group was the best choice I made at UNH.”
Now she’s moving to Boston to start a job with KPMG, one of the big four accounting firms. She says having Atkins on her résumé helped her land an internship at the firm — she was the first UNH undergraduate ever to land one there — which gave her a chance to prove herself and land a full-time job.
“I actually got my internship through the career services office at Paul College,” Ulaskiewicz says. “They helped me apply and do my résumé and cover letter. I couldn’t recommend them more.”
She also received a scholarship to help defray the cost of living in the city during her internship. Paul College’s internship opportunity fund supports students whose field studies bring them to major cities where the cost of living is higher.
On May 20, she graduated with 150 credits — that’s 30 more than required for a typical bachelor’s degree — and it qualifies her to take the Certified Public Accountant exam.
“It was hard, but it feels good to get it done,” says Ulaskiewicz.
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Written By:
Tracey Bentley | Communications and Public Affairs
