Amazing Leader for October: Accounting Senior Finds the Why

Table of Contents

When AJ Frezza graduates in Might, he’ll have a task waiting around for him.

He’ll return to his hometown of Orlando, Florida, and start off his occupation with Ernst & Young, the perfectly-regarded public accounting business recognised as EY.

He scored the position past summer time at the close of his digital internship with EY. His professors at High Position College had him completely ready. But they knew he would be.

Professors see Frezza as 1 of HPU’s prime accounting majors. He’s an inquisitive scholar ready to talk to inquiries and a personable, uncomplicated-heading senior leader prepared to assistance those close to him.

Frezza is one of two Incredible Leaders for the thirty day period of October. He’s a Presidential Scholar, Main Justice of the College student Governing administration Affiliation and a single of HPU’s 10 ARDs, the campus shorthand for assistant resident director.

But Frezza was not constantly that outgoing. That improved after his freshman yr mainly because of a dialogue with his mother.

With her youngest baby coming to HPU, she understood what could come about.

The Best Information

Frezza met HPU senior Danielle Drummond at freshmen orientation. She’s from Orlando, far too. They’ve been greatest good friends at any time considering the fact that.

Frezza found HPU since he liked North Carolina. He needed to see snow and really feel the chill of the drop. He never obtained that in Orlando. But his attract to HPU stretched beyond the allure of the four seasons.

He understood he didn’t want to go to a large school. He grew up in the vicinity of the College of Central Florida, a faculty with just one of the premier scholar bodies in the nation with approximately 60,000 students.

He desired a smaller sized faculty wherever he would know his professors and they would know him. He also desired to key in accounting and stick to the footsteps of his father, who ran his own tax and fiscal preparing organization.

When he arrived for HPU’s Presidential Scholars Weekend, the text of HPU President Dr. Nido Qubein and the university’s emphasis on everyday living techniques caught his consideration. It captivated his mother.

“We have been chatting about HPU on the way property, and she talked about all the daily life classes Dr. Qubein stated I’d discover,” Frezza claims. “She advised me, ‘Soak all that in. Which is what you’re going for. I experienced to master all that myself afterwards in life.’

“At 18, you’re a small naïve, but she had been by way of the method, and she could see what the college could give and how it could advantage me.”

Frezza listened. That manufactured all the variation.

The Everyday living Capabilities of Management

Frezza’s mother, Kathleen, served opened her son’s eyes what he could achieve from HPU. Beside them is Frezza’s sister, Alexis, two a long time his senior and a doctoral student in orthopedic drugs.

Frezza honed his management techniques by doing the job as a resident assistant. In this photo, Frezza is standing in the back again in the middle with other RAs from HPU.

In Orlando, Frezza performed left subject and pitched some for Trinity Prep Saints. But at his tiny private high university, that was the extent of what he did outside of his courses.

He was not, as he states, “super-concerned.” And when he arrived to HPU, he did not do substantially his freshman calendar year apart from turn out to be common with living much from house.

Then arrived one more dialogue with his mom, a senior health-related science liaison with Bayer Prescribed drugs.

She informed him to consider advantage of the opportunities on campus simply because that was component of the school expertise. He then utilized to come to be a resident assistant, and he got a career overseeing 50 freshmen on the third flooring of the R.G. Wanek Center.

“That was the initial time I experienced to oversee a ton of people today,” Frezza states. “I had to lead meetings and communicate to folks a person-on-one about all sorts of queries they experienced about meal strategies and roommate troubles, and that all opened me up. I grew to become more outgoing, and I dove into it because I stored telling myself, ‘People did it right before me. Why cannot I?’”

Right after his sophomore year, HPU’s Place of work of Pupil Life selected Frezza for the university’s Rookie of the 12 months Award. By his junior 12 months, Frezza turned an RA on the fifth flooring of Blessing Corridor.

As soon as all over again, Frezza wanted to work with freshmen. And when once again, he had 50 on his hall.

“I generally like functioning with freshmen simply because almost everything is new to them,” Frezza states, “I bear in mind what it was like to be in their sneakers, and I wanted to make their changeover to college a lot easier.”

The Importance of Mentorship

Frezza grew to become the Chief Justice of HPU’s SGA past semester.

At HPU’s Phillips Faculty of Organization, professors like Scott Davis and George Noxon aided prepare Frezza for his vocation with everything from resume strategies to how to make an oral presentation effective. They also gave him valuable tips.

“It’s performing the correct factor and earning certain you manage your independence,” Noxon, chair of HPU’s accounting and finance division, advised Frezza about the obligations of accounting, “You’re not just checking off containers. You have to have to know why you’re executing it.”

In the tumble of 2019, when Noxon invited recruiters and account executives to the school’s “Meet The Firms” function, Frezza came well prepared. 1 of his sister’s friends had assisted him connect with another person in EY’s office environment in Orlando. That link led to Frezza assembly the EY recruiter via e-mail.

At HPU’s “Meet the Firms” party, Frezza met recruiters, and those people discussions aided establish his self esteem for his big interviews in Florida. A month later, Frezza flew to Orlando and interviewed for a potential internship with EY. He introduced his black suit, his blue accommodate and the awareness and life competencies he experienced uncovered at HPU.

Frezza and the other associates of HPU’s Justice Court docket played laser tag previous fall at the HPU Estate as a enjoyable workforce-constructing workout.

Just after two days of interviews, in which 60 university learners had been vying for 30 internships, Frezza understood his education had him all set.

“I understood what I was walking into,” he states. “It’s what my professors taught me, and I knew in the back again of my head that I did all the things I could to get to the place I am now. I set it all on the table.”

He bought the simply call in December. He bought the internship. Right then, he referred to as his moms and dads.

“I was super energized,” he suggests. “But the most significant matter was relief. I needed Orlando. I stay in Orlando, and I was relieved that I could go into my spring semester not worrying about obtaining an internship.”

His news didn’t shock Noxon.

“No doubt in my mind that AJ would not close that offer,” suggests Noxon, who has taught at HPU because 1993. “He’s going into general public accounting, and he’ll be a spouse in 12 to 14 many years for the reason that he’s received the ability set to make that happen.

“I worked at Cost Waterhouse for 10 many years, and I know what it takes. He will do nicely. He’ll make HPU seem superior, he’ll make me appear great, and he’ll be 1 of the ones who continue to be in contact and arrive at out to assistance our students once he’s there.

“That’s the way AJ is.”

The Major Offer of ‘Why’

Frezza stands with his moms and dads, Anthony and Kathleen, on his senior night time with the Trinity Prep Saints. AJ is the eighth technology of his relatives named Anthony.

When he performed baseball at Trinity Prep Faculty, Frezza’s mentor, Trevor Berryhill, hated to lose. He desired to earn. But furthermore, he preferred his players, as he stated, to “understand the why.”

Frezza never comprehended what Coach Berryhill intended. Then he arrived at HPU.

He experienced employment of accountability on campus, turned the Chief Justice of SGA, gained awards and joined the Phillips School of Business enterprise Advisory Board. He also acquired the Ollie Bieniemy Endowed Scholarship for his academic achievement in the business enterprise school.

He found inside him what he did not know he experienced.

Two many years back, when Frezza read the Trinity Saints had been actively playing in a tournament 90 minutes west of campus. he understood he had to go. He needed to see Coach Berryhill. Frezza informed him he experienced last but not least figured it out –– the why of it all.

Many thanks to HPU, he now understood.