Who’s Who? Meredith Ellis

On a leap of faith, Meredith Ellis, a junior accounting major from Southlake, Texas, decided to spend her summer working as an accounting intern for the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) in Winchester, Virginia. Making the move to Virginia was well worth the risk to Ellis as she not only had the opportunity to work in the business atmosphere but also to implement her faith into her work.

ECFA is an accreditation organization that certifies evangelical ministries, such as churches, as financially trustworthy. If a ministry has the ECFA seal, their organized can be perceived as holding themselves to very high accounting and tax standards. While working at ECFA, Ellis spent her time working on projects that were assigned every few days. These projects included editing books that the ECFA publishes on various nonprofit accounting issues, updating accounting standards in books already published and renewing memberships.

Inside the office, Ellis and her co-workers did not just focus on accounting tasks, but also had time devoted to strengthening their faith as well as making the office a fun place. Every Friday the staff joined together for a staff devotion and celebratory parties were held often. When Ellis left ECFA in August they even threw her fiesta, celebrating with food and a piñata.

“I had not even thought about nonprofit accounting until this job landed in my lap,” Ellis said. “Honestly, it didn’t even really occur to me what I would be doing on my first day of work. However, the Lord knew was he was doing when he put me there and I am so glad I had that experience.”

Ellis was introduced to the opportunity to work at ECFA after looking into multiple possible internships and job positions. After not having found much searching for jobs on her own, Ellis reached out to Dean Bryan Mckinney, dean of the Hickingbotham School of Business, for help and on that same day ECFA had contacted Ouachita about hiring accounting students for the summer.

“I applied for at least five jobs in Dallas before I heard about ECFA,” Ellis said. “I interviewed and was sent an offer. It really showed me how truly amazing things will happen if you wait on the Lord.”

Unsure of what her internship would look like exactly, Ellis started her job expecting that she would have stereotypical intern responsibilities.

“I thought I would be making copies and getting people lunch as an intern,” Ellis said. “I was definitely wrong. I worked on real life compliance issues, real life financial statements and worked on real books that are being published and I learned so much.”

Living in Virginia, Ellis was able to take advantage of the area she lived in and got to take trips and go sightseeing as part of her summer experience.

“Since I was so close to the other major cities in the northeast, I visited D.C. often,” Ellis said. “I also took a weekend trip to New York and did some hiking on the Appalachian Trial and many more.”

Overall, Ellis’ summer was one that helped put what she had been learning in the classroom for two years in a concrete situation. Ellis was able to find her strengths and be challenged in her line of work all while being obedient to God’s direction in her life.

“When the Lord tells you to go, you go,” Ellis said. “It pays off when you listen and I could not have asked for a better summer. I learned so much about where the Lord is leading me in the future, I gained a best friend, and most of all, had some great mentors in the field in which I am heading.”

By Sydney Bratton