An accounting firm’s scholarship for Wakatipu High school leavers has kicked off with the first successful applicant undertaking a summer holiday internship.
The inaugural BDO Southern Lakes & Central Otago accounting scholarship’s been awarded to 17-year-old Madi McLean.
It’s providing her $2500 a year for three years towards living/course costs at Dunedin’s University of Otago, plus paid holiday internships
and the offer of employment afterwards.
Madi, who started at BDO’s Queenstown office last week, will be doing a double degree in commerce, with accounting and economics, and law, with the aim of becoming a chartered accountant.
Local BDO partner Nathan Keil says ‘‘we’re trying to do our bit to support students and provide accounting as an option for them, because it’s difficult, as it is with a lot of professions, to attract staff’’.
Wakatipu High principal Oded Nathan says he’s grateful to BDO for its ‘‘extraordinary support’’ of students and the community.
Madi, who in November got her first call-up into the Southern United senior women’s football side, says she enjoys accounting for its ‘‘problem-solving aspect’’, and says her internship’s giving her an idea of the environment an accounting firm provides.
