Accounting internships build workforce skills

Puja Thapa traveled from the gateway of the Himalaya Mountains to Moscow and its rolling Palouse hills because she wanted hands-on learning experiences in her field of study.

She has not been disappointed with her decision.

Thapa, an accounting major from Kathmandu, is among a group of students who earned internships this year at University of Idaho’s Division of Finance and Administration, which manages U of I’s budgets as well as facility maintenance, human resources and campus business services.

Her internship at DFA gives Thapa, who graduates Spring 2027, experience in management and hiring as well as accounting.

“I am currently working in accounts payable and general accounting, learning how every department functions,” Thapa said. “This is the job I'll be working in after I leave college and get my CPA license, so the knowledge I’m getting here is very valuable.”

She will take a lead role as she administers the internship program.

Last year, as University of Idaho was gearing up an initiative that focused on providing experiential learning opportunities across campus, the division — although not an academic program — accepted the challenge.

“We looked at the initiative and thought, how can Finance and Administration get involved?” said University Finance Analyst Matthew Rueger.

His department modeled their internships after the Office of Sponsored Programs, which has a long-running internship program for students on campus.

“We decided we’d like to replicate that,” Rueger said.

As the department’s first two interns, Thapa and Karl Andersson, who is a senior majoring in accounting and business information analytics, were assigned real-world tasks that needed to be completed within their departments, and which would build on the students’ academic foundation.

Thapa's internship includes revising the division’s onboarding handbook, helping to hire and screen interns as well as keeping track of the university’s return on its investment. Andersson’s internship focuses on operational training, process documentation and transferring the knowledge of a long-term employee who is retiring.

“His primary project is to document critical Student Accounts business processes, develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), workflow diagrams and onboarding materials, and to support the transition following a planned retirement,” Laila Cornwall, director of Student Accounts, who mentors Andersson, said. “The documentation he is creating will become a lasting resource for onboarding future employees and supporting operational continuity within Student Accounts.”

Andersson’s work also includes supporting daily Student Accounts operations while identifying opportunities to streamline processes and improve documentation.

“He has been tasked with looking for inefficiencies, anything he sees that’s obsolete or unnecessary, and to recommend a new approach,” Cornwall said. “He has progressed to the point where I am confident in his ability to help onboard our new employee using the documentation and training materials he has developed throughout the internship.”

Both Thapa and Andersson see their internships as transitions from classroom learning into the workplace, but with a safety net.

Over the last three years at U of I, Thapa has been part of the Accounting Experiential Class, Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program and Vandal Solutions, all of which provide hands-on training for students in the College of Business and Economics, allowing students to use their classroom knowledge in real-world situations.

Earning the internship at DFA is another step toward professionalism, Thapa said.

“The experiential class and Vandal Solutions gave me a lot of confidence, and this internship is an extension of that,” she said. “The mentorship is great, it’s intentional and patient. I really appreciate the learning environment.”

Andersson enrolled at U of I while living in Kazakhstan where his father worked for the foreign service.

He joined U of I because of the reputation of its business school, and “it offered me real good scholarships.”

Andersson, a National Merit Scholar, attended UIdaho Bound online while in Kazakhstan.

“I had to stay up really late,” he said.

Having traveled around the world and lived in a variety of countries most of his life, Andersson wanted a job that could be done anywhere.

“Accounting is very flexible,” he said. “Money is everywhere and keeping track of it is an essential role in all organizations. I enjoy working with details and numbers, so accounting is a good fit for me.”

U of I’s business information and analytics degree was another draw that led Andersson to Moscow.

“I have always been interested in computers and the tech side of things,” he said. “This degree bridges computer science and business by building, storing and managing a business’ information systems.”

Besides providing a venue for interns to use their academics and mentoring them to grow skills relevant to their fields of study, Rueger's co-workers are also teaching the student interns how to work in an office environment, Rueger said.

“We make sure the internship is relative to their field, and we want to make sure they are workforce ready, so we mentor them in soft skills, etiquette, how to build external and internal contacts, how to secure data, organizational charts,” he said. “Those skills don’t come out of the box; you generally have to learn them on the ground.”

Despite being a support division in the university system, he’s glad his unit can contribute to the educational mission of the university.

“Our employees mentor, guide and increase the aptitude of these students so they will be ready for the workforce in the future,” Rueger said.

The DFA internship program was supported in part through a $20,000 donation from Pioneer Federal Credit Union from Mountain Home Idaho.