By: Erik Pedersen, Content Strategy Director
Class of 2024 Spotlights
BALTIMORE – For close to three years, Amelia King worked a 4:30 to 9:30 a.m. shift at Amazon before heading to Notre Dame of Maryland University for her classes. She also mixed in a second job selling insurance for State Farm on the side.
All in all, King worked six days a week for a majority of her college career, using her one “off day” to catch up on coursework and her personal life. Her perseverance, however, paid off in the end, as she already has a full-time job lined up at an accounting firm downtown where she interned this semester.
King was a business major concentrating in accounting during her time at NDMU, utilizing the Baltimore Collegetown Network’s Baltimore Student Exchange Program to complete all of her accounting course requirements. On campus, she still managed to find time to participate in Notre Dame’s Business and Economics Society, serving in executive board positions during her final two years as a student.
Learn more about King’s academic experience, her ability to balance work with academics, and her future career plans:
Did you know from the beginning that you wanted to major in business? What drew you to that major, and what made you want to concentrate on accounting?
I had planned on being a nursing major at first. I like helping people. I like knowing that I made their day better. That’s what drew me to nursing, and I also knew that Notre Dame had a really strong nursing school. Thinking about it more, though, I was good at them, but I had never really enjoyed my science classes. As I was taking mostly general education courses during my first year, I decided to move away from a major with science requirements and find something I knew I would enjoy.
I landed on business. I’ve always enjoyed math, so I wanted to integrate that into the general business degree. That’s when I declared my concentration in accounting. It fit for me. I’ve always loved math – I wanted math in my career. You could say that math and the opportunity to help people were two things that I wanted to prioritize. Business majors also have a lot of room to grow as they progress through the field.
What has your Notre Dame experience been like from an academic standpoint?
I think a large part of my success would be thanks to the Baltimore Student Exchange Program, which allowed me to take courses at Loyola to complete my accounting concentration. I took two of my accounting-focused classes at Notre Dame – financial accounting and managerial accounting – and I took the others over at Loyola.
I hadn’t known that opportunity existed at first, but Professor Larry Beyer and Dr. Leslie Korb in our business department helped guide me through the process. Dr. Korb was my faculty advisor, and she was a huge part of my success at Notre Dame. She’s always been my go-to person, and I loved the two courses that I took with her as well.
Talk about the jobs you held during these past few years to help get yourself through school. How did those experiences help set you up for success after graduation?
I started working at Amazon at the beginning of COVID. It was one of the only jobs that was open near where I lived at the time. I worked in the warehouse. I started out as a normal associate, and then I was promoted to a learning ambassador. In that position, I helped train all of the new hires, and I trained employees that were already in the warehouse, helping them learn new specialized roles. A large part of that job was also working with managers on a variety of tasks. That was helpful as I worked towards my business major, working alongside the operations manager and seeing how the business was run. It was a nice parallel to my coursework.
I also picked up another job at State Farm working at an agent’s office. I gained my property and casualty license. I was selling personal lines of insurance, such as homeowners insurance, auto, boat, recreational vehicles, personal articles policies, all kinds of things. I stopped working at State Farm in January when I got my accounting internship, and I had to let Amazon go at the beginning of the fall semester. My shift was from 4:30 to 9:30 a.m., and there were some classes that I really had to get done which started before 9:30.
Working those jobs was a lot, but it helped me get to where I am now. It was a conversation starter during interviews. That’s how I got my job at State Farm, and that’s how I got my job at the internship where I am now. Having that self-dedication and motivation to work hard definitely helped me achieve my goals.
How were you able to balance your jobs with academics and everything else going on in your life?
A lot of it just came down to perseverance. I’ve always been better with having a lot to do compared to nothing at all. The jobs just kept me on my toes. They kept me busy, and they taught me the importance of time management. I knew that I didn’t have as much time to do my assignments, so that kept me motivated to get them done as early as possible. I would still find small windows of time where I could fit in self-care and fun activities.
I was working six days a week, so I only had one day off, and that day was spent catching up on schoolwork, trying to get ahead of assignments, and dealing with my personal life. I just kept pushing through it. My mom and dad always taught me that you can do anything you put your mind to. Nothing comes easy, so you have to work hard to get where you want to go. That was always in the back of my mind.
Where did you intern this semester, and will you be staying with that company after graduation?
I received an internship opportunity with Ellin and Tucker. It’s a midsize accounting firm located downtown on Pratt Street. I’m currently a tax associate this semester, but I was given a full-time position there after graduation. Starting in August I will work in the audit and accounting division.
It’s been great, because I’m gaining experience in two different areas in the field. Having an opportunity during my internship to learn about the office environment and meet the people that I’m going to be working with full time, it helped foster a good relationship with the company. I expect to stay at Ellin and Tucker for a while.
What are your long-term career goals?
I’m going to see how auditing goes once I start working full time, and then after I gain some experience in auditing I’ll determine what direction I want to go into afterwards. In the meantime, I’m probably going to do the Master of Accounting program at Loyola, because I really enjoyed my time there. After I complete that, I’m going to study and get my CPA (Certified Public Accounting) certification, and then I’m going to go back to school to get an MBA (Master of Business Administration).
Is there a message that you’d like to give to NDMU students who are still working their way through college?
Keep persevering. College is draining. It can be tiring at times, but the end goal is worth it. Gain as many different experiences as you can while you’re on campus, because this is truly the time to experiment with what you want to do without there being any type of penalty. Definitely take advantage of that. Take advantage of all the opportunities that you have, and gain as many connections as you can.
Established in 1895, Notre Dame of Maryland University (NDMU) is a private, Catholic institution in Baltimore, Maryland, with the mission to educate leaders to transform the world. Notre Dame has been named one of the best "Regional Universities North" by U.S. News & World Report.
