Growing up in Nashville, Ben Kingsbury visited Vanderbilt’s campus more times than he could count. It had always been “somewhat of a dream,” he says, to go to school there.

He wound up earning his undergraduate degree at Furman, but when he began looking for a program that could quickly equip him with skills for a career in accounting—and, he says, “help me understand how businesses worked at a minute level so I could grow my knowledge of business in general”—he set his sights again on Vanderbilt. “It was a great opportunity for me to come back to Nashville for a year after undergrad,” Ben says.

Looking back on his year—and ahead to launching his career in the Boston office of EY—Ben believes that the MAcc Assurance program was time well invested. He credits professors Karl Hackenbrack (who directs the MAcc program) and Michael Stuart with being especially helpful, both inside and outside of the classroom. And he says the Hogan Assessment, which is part of the Leadership Development Program, “was very helpful in understanding my strengths and weaknesses before I went off to participate in the busy season internship.”

Vanderbilt, Ben says, “is a phenomenal place to start a career. It provides a unique learning experience in a very special city.”

In fact, he is so sold on the experience that he volunteered to work with the MAcc admissions team as a campus visit coordinator—helping to recruit the next class of students for the program.

Fun Fact: Ben enjoys hiking in Nashville’s Warner Parks and playing tennis with friends at the Vanderbilt courts.

Vanderbilt is a phenomenal place to start a career. It provides a unique learning experience in a very special city.