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Student Spotlight: Jayla Harris
After a successful internship, the standout student-athlete has career plans in place
University News | October 30, 2018
Employment awaits business major Jayla Harris ’19 when she graduates from Virginia Wesleyan University next May. A summer internship with the accounting firm Cherry Bekaert was so successful for the senior from Fredericksburg, VA, that a role as staff tax accountant is open to her after she completes her degree. She is extremely excited about that. She says she learned a great deal about her field and herself during the internship.
“Moving from the classroom setting to a real life application was definitely a humbling experience for me,” said Harris. “At first, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I was always confused, but I learned to not let that deter me because I was eager to learn. I took notes and asked questions and I now see my future as pretty good because even though being an accountant can be stressful at times, I really enjoy what I do, and I think that is the most important part.”
The steps toward completing her internship were supported by The Lighthouse: Center for Exploration and Discovery, with a grant from the Summer High-Impact Practice Program (SHIPP). She first heard about the opportunity through Cherry Bekaert employee, Paul Meyer, and after securing recommendations from her professors, creating her resume, and attending an open house at the firm, she was ready for the interview process which included a personality test, background check, interviews with two different groups of professionals and lunch with one of the employees.
Harris's experiences at VWU began in 2015. She says she was first attracted to Virginia Wesleyan because of the “amazing women’s basketball team” that she has been a part of for the past three years. She has been a captain of the team since her sophomore year and she says that this great group of special and talented coaches and players have been her family at VWU.
Head Women’s Basketball Coach Stephany Dunmyer first saw Harris play in a summer AAU tournament, and she immediately knew that Harris could be one of the best basketball players to ever come through VWU’s program.
“Jayla brought tremendous pace and energy to the court, and her ability to pull up and score from mid-range completely set her apart from other players,” said Dunmyer. “I quickly realized that Jayla was not only a terrific basketball player but, more importantly, she was a stand-out student and a phenomenal person.”
Dunmyer noted that five senior basketball players had just graduated from VWU in 2015, so Harris stepped into a situation as an on-court leader immediately, and has excelled on the court and in the classroom ever since.
The 2017-18 Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID) Academic All-State Team named Harris to the All-Academic Team based on her performances in the classroom and on the court. Excelling on both offense and defense, she helped the Marlins earn 14 wins on the season as well as a trip to the ODAC-Championship semi-final. Starting in all 28 of the team's games last season, Harris reached double-digit points in all but five of them. She finished the year averaging 16.8 points per game which led the squad and ranked second in the conference only to Randolph-Macon's Kelly Williams, who led the entire country. Harris had a multifaceted game as well, shooting 33.3% (52-156) from beyond the arc and a team-leading 82.3% (102-124) from the charity stripe. Last season, she finished with 470 total points, giving her 1382 career points which placed her third in VWU history.
In addition to being a standout on the basketball court, she’s also been active in campus life as a member of Sigma Beta Delta, the business honor society, the 2018 Spring Marlin Prestige Business Conference, and in volunteering with LifeNet Health to promote organ donation in honor of former VWU student Nancy Kelly.
Harris has also flourished academically and credits the easy access to her professors and their resources and the class sizes at VWU for her positive academic experiences that helped to prepare her for her internship with Cherry Bekaert.
Her most important takeaway from the internship experience: "be humble and eager to learn."
“People are willing to help you if you seem interested in learning,” says Harris. “I learned how to communicate with others, like my coworkers and clients, in a professional fashion. I am mostly quiet, so being forced to talk to and ask questions in a professional setting was new to me. And this is a profession where you never stop learning. The rules and regulations are constantly changing in this field, so you are continually learning every day.”
She’s ready and is looking forward to the challenges of the profession, right after her senior year and completion of all her courses next spring.
Learn more about Career Development and Internships at VWU.