Brett Ralls '04

The Chance to Prove Yourself

My parents are both teachers, so for a while I thought I'd end up doing that as well, but sometime in high school I changed my mind. I've always been fairly competitive, and that fits well into my majors — business management and accounting.

I didn't even apply to Guilford until the spring of my senior year of high school. My dad went to Guilford, and I didn't really want to follow him. It's funny; now I hope my son can come to Guilford as well. But I didn't want to come here, because I didn't know what the college had to offer. Then Randy Doss and Charlie Hendricks came to my high school, and I was sold in 15 minutes. It's turned out to be great, and I'm glad I've done things the way I have.

I came into college planning to major in business management, but I decided in my sophomore year that I wanted something extra. I know that business management and accounting are two related fields, but being at Guilford made getting a double major a lot easier. If I had decided to do this at a bigger school, it probably would have taken an extra year. It's really coming together for me now. Between the things I've learned in classes for my majors and my economics concentration, I'm able to take what I've learned and use it to put a different spin on information in my classes. It gives you a really unique view.

Because Guilford's a small school, you can stick out if you want to; you can go and make a name for yourself and do things that will get you attention. Just the experience of being at Guilford allows you to prove yourself, academically and otherwise. It allows you to go out there and prove what you're made of. There's no way I can emphasize how important that's been to me. Just building confidence and preparing yourself for what's to come. Getting that experience and being able to prove yourself while you're in college — that's what I value the most.

I've become a leader not only through athletics and on the soccer field, but also in classroom experiences. There are a lot of group projects and small classes that you wouldn't get at a big school. At a big school, you're your social security number, and you're a seat in class, and they'll look at that seat to see if you're present. At Guilford it's completely different.

I've received focused attention from my professors and my coach. I can just walking into a teacher's office during office hours and they know who I am. I can talk out problems that I've had in class — we'll sit down and talk until I've got a subject clear in my head, even though we've just finished with class. I get the teacher's view of the subject, and that's invaluable when it comes to learning as opposed to memorizing something out of a book. And the teachers are willing to do this in their free time. I've also asked a lot of my soccer coach, Coach Behrens, while I've been here. He's been a major influence in my life so far, in these four years, and I don't' perceive that ever stopping throughout the rest of my life. I think he and I will keep in touch forever.

I'm planning on going into accounting once I graduate. I'm going to try to get my masters degree in accounting from UNCG, and then take the CPA exam and start working at a public firm. That way, I'll have the accreditation and the training. I'm actually working towards that right now — I have an internship with a local accounting firm this summer.

This will be my second internship through Guilford — my first was last summer, at MTV in Times Square. I lived in New Jersey and commuted, but just going in to work there every day was a great life experience. I was working with the production services management department. The reason they picked me is because out of about 400 interns there, I was the only one with business and accounting experience. Howard, the guy I worked with, needed help keeping records for his segment of the business. I spent most of my summer setting up a database in Excel — which was really convenient, since I'd just taken a class on Excel at Guilford. I did different things with the program that Howard didn't understand, and he appreciated the work that I did.

A lot of the values of the college gave me a different view from what I was used to. Where I grew up is very traditional, and more conservative. Guilford College has a more liberal viewpoint, and prepares you to be able to handle what the real world will have to offer you. You take the values of the college out there with you. I know I'll use some of them immediately — especially honesty and simplicity — in the accounting world. There have been some big, public screw-ups in the accounting industry lately. What they're looking for now are people who are honest and people that will get the job done. That's what Guilford is about.

You're an individual, and Guilford allows you to be an individual.