Elliott Davis’s Envision named top internship program in the country

A seven-week internship at Elliott Davis is the best program of its kind in the entire country, according to a recent poll of more than 12,000 college students by Vault.com.

Elliott Davis’s ENVISION program beat out more than 100 other internship programs from across the country to be ranked number one overall based on five primary categories: quality of life, compensation and benefits, interview process, career development, and full-time employment prospects.

ENVISION is designed to give students an opportunity to explore potential career paths, build relationships throughout the firm and gain valuable work experience in public accounting. The program is built around the Elliott Davis mission of making a positive impact on the firm’s clients, people and communities. During the program, students gain experience working on client engagements, participate in community service projects, and are involved in leadership development activities. The ENVISION class of 2017 included 105 students who completed more than 2,500 hours of community service and more than 15,000 hours of client service work.

Other events include an opening retreat in downtown Greenville, which is where Elliott Davis’s headquarters is located, and includes a graduation weekend in historic Charleston, S.C.

“ENVISION is a reflection of who we are as a firm and as a community,” said Nita Albrecht, Elliott Davis’s Campus Recruiting Manager. “We are honored that ENVISION is consistently recognized as a great internship experience. Our team knows how important the program is to the future of our firm, and building meaningful relationships with our interns doesn’t end when the internship does.”

As with any internship program, Elliott Davis’s ENVISION is about exposing college students to what a city has to offer after graduation and help create a pool of potential talent to move to an area. For example, students have learned more about their community’s vibrant history and the economic impact they can have there. That helps them make a decision on where they want to locate after they graduate.

Jackie McArdle, who went through the program in 2017 and is now in graduate school pursuing her MBA and will come to work for Elliott Davis when she graduates, said she chose Elliott Davis over bigger firms in larger cities because of the in-depth nature of ENVISION. She felt that Elliott Davis would make her a stronger potential employee to the firm as well as a better overall person because of the service aspect of the program.

“The ENVISION program helped me feel incredibly prepared to begin my accounting career,” McArdle said. “Elliott Davis provided me with all of the resources I needed to get as much out of my internship as possible. I feel confident that my experience with Elliott Davis has made me stronger.”

Each intern must do 40 hours of volunteering at a local non-profit organization. Students learn about a community’s vibrant history and the economic impact that they can have there. That helps them make a decision on where they want to locate after they graduate.

McArdle said the opportunity to actually experience the community and people of the city she was interning in Elliott Davis is a key factor in the success of the program.

“The atmosphere and culture of the firm made coming to work enjoyable and something to look forward to and, believe it or not, I was sad when it ended and I had to go back to school,” McArdle said.

Elliott Davis is one of the top 40 accounting, tax and consulting services firms in the country and top five in the Southeast with annual revenues of $120 million and more than 750 professionals and specialists in nine offices across four states (Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee) and the Cayman Islands.

Its mission is to make a positive impact for the clients and communities it serves. Consistently named a “Best Place to Work” in major markets, the firm promotes an inclusive, progressive culture, aiming to maintain continuity of staff as well as provide senior team member involvement on all client engagements.

Additional development programs at Elliott Davis include ENERGIZE, a student leadership program for undergraduate students, and ENGAGE, an entry-level onboarding experience for first year staff.

About Elliott Davis, LLC

Elliott Davis provides comprehensive assurance, tax and consulting solutions to diverse businesses, organizations and individuals. With a network of forward-thinking professionals in major U.S. markets and alliance resources across the globe, the firm ranks among the top 40 fastest-growing accounting firms in the U.S. Visit www.elliottdavis.com for more information.