SHARLA PLASTOW - ACCOUNTING
Accountant learned business, leadership skills AT SOUTHEASTERN

She helps keep others honest.

It’s a good gig for a Christian, but without the hardcore business skills learned at Southeastern, Sharla Plastow would lack the know-how to help audit organizations for accounting giant KPMG.

Plastow, who graduated in 2003 with a 4.0 grade point average, is an assurance associate. She participates in auditing hospitals and other organizations. She gained crucial business and leadership skills as an accounting major and sports team captain at Southeastern. Although KPMG often recruits from large state schools, Plastow believes Southeastern equally prepared her for the workplace. Courses in business law with Southeastern Adjunct Professor Billy Ready, intermediate accounting with Business Professor Dr. Bill Hahn and advanced spreadsheets with another business professor were particularly valuable, she said. And playing women’s basketball for two years at Southeastern helped teach her how to work hard and work with others. Plastow uses her work ethic and her skills as a team player for KPMG, she said.

Plastow, who transferred to Southeastern from Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota, explored before discovering her major. First, she took science classes, with an eye towards pursuing optometry. Then, Plastow mused about majoring in marketing. Finally, she decided upon accounting, she said. Plastow said her education continued after graduation. Working for KPMG, which audits organizations from government agencies to Fortune 500 companies, showed her how knowledge she gained at Southeastern functions in the real world.

Although Plastow enjoys her current job, she’s unsure whether she’ll spend the rest of her career as a public accountant. Instead of checking financial records that others produce, Plastow also would dig the challenge of formulating statements herself as a firm’s chief executive officer or chief financial officer.