Ashland University Accounting and Finance Student Stephen Cox Interned at eCollect

2014 Oct 15

Medina resident Stephen Cox, a junior accounting and finance major at Ashland University, served as an intern in Cleveland this summer for eCollect, LLC.

Alongside his supervisor and COO Justin Scheef, Cox performed a variety of duties as part of the internship, including completing journal entries, reconciliations and various spreadsheet tasks.

Cox said, "eCollect is a small, start-up company that deals with verification of funds, ACHs and other types of collections. They provide every employee with the tools to succeed and give them opportunities to take on more work when they request it."

During his internship, Cox created a summary spreadsheet for clients and also created a system to find client liability, remittance and collections and he then posted those to the general journal.

When asked how classes at AU helped prepare him for the internship, Cox said, "The business spreadsheets class was the most helpful class I have ever taken. Professor Brenan goes through the material so smoothly that I was able to remember almost everything I did. In the internship, I made spreadsheets on a daily basis, created macros, and formatted large amounts of data that stretched over 19000 rows. Of course, the accounting classes also helped. I wouldn't have been able to create the system or do the journal entries without accounting skills. Business spreadsheets were by far the most helpful though, and my superiors recognized that."

Cox said the internship taught him how difficult it is to start a business and create solid accounting processes. He said he also learned how to deal with real-world problems and come up with solutions for them. It also gave him experience in explaining accounting terms to non-accountants.

When asked how the internship will help him in AU classes, Cox said, "The internship mostly gave me a much broader sense of what it is like to create a company in today's market. I was able to put my accounting and spreadsheet skills to work, but that was mostly strengthening my understanding. The internship will give me more real-world examples in class and help me better understand parts of businesses that I am not studying. Overall, it was a great experience and everyone should have at least one internship, no matter what major they are."

Cox said he loves accounting and after graduation, he plans on staying at AU for another year to get his 150 credit hours to sit for the CPA exam. He was proud that the internship led to an offer of continuing to work for the company.

Cox, the son of Stephen and Christine Cox of Medina, is a 2012 graduate of Cloverleaf High School.

He is very involved on the Ashland University campus, including a member of the Co-Ed Golf Club and the Co-Ed Tennis Club. He also is the community chair for AU's Institute of Managerial Accountants (IMA) Club, which is planning many great opportunities to give back to the Ashland community.

Ashland University, which has been ranked in the top 200 colleges and universities in U.S. News and World Report's National Universities category, is a mid-sized, private university conveniently located a short distance from Akron, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio. Ashland University (www.ashland.edu) values the individual student and offers a unique educational experience that combines the challenge of strong, applied academic programs with a faculty and staff who build nurturing relationships with their students.