By Intern Sambodhi Vasani

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work as a Finance and Accounting Summer intern for the Pension Boards-United Church of Christ (PBUCC). During my interview process, I got the impression that PBUCC had an open and welcoming work environment. The time that I have spent here has only further confirmed my initial impression. PBUCC not only has a welcoming work environment, but it is a place where everyone’s views are considered. PBUCC also emphasizes a collaborative workspace.

Even though most of the staff work remotely, we were able to get a fun and unhindered summer internship experience. The weekly roundtable sessions were a great opportunity for us to learn about the role each department plays, and it gave us the opportunity to ask as many questions as we wanted. The Employee Engagement week allowed us to meet and interact with everyone at PBUCC, while also having a great time during the many planned interactive activities.

As a Finance and Accounting intern, I was able to strengthen my accounting skills and become familiar with accounting terminology. One of my main projects was to aid in end-of-month reconciliations for various accrual accounts. I was able to get an in-depth view of the month-to-month closing accounting procedures, such as reviewing journal entries and transactions for any discrepancies or to ensure accounts were balanced. Furthermore, I worked closely with the Accounts Payable department to aid in processing employee requests, expense invoices, grants requests, and user administration on the SAP Concur system. I also assisted in the fiscal year 2022 budget review by reviewing variances in the budget and actual expense. I reviewed journal entries for various accounts and created expense summaries.

Moreover, the Intern Capstone Project allowed me to get an opportunity to experience working in an interconnected collaborative workspace. For this year’s Capstone Project, our goal was to find retirement solutions for several inactive members with account accumulations. In order to get a clear understanding of who these members were and what possible solution we could recommend, the interns worked closely with various departments. It was great to see how accommodating everyone was to help explain things to us as we progressed in our project. We came up with a multifaceted plan that allowed for a more personalized and situation-specific solution for the inactive members. We presented our project to the executive board and staff.

Overall, my internship at PBUCC was filled with many great experiences, which gave me the opportunity to learn about accounting and the many other PBUCC functions. An internship at PBUCC is a great place for students to get a well-rounded and fun summer internship experience.