Amy Petersen

As an accounting major, Amy Petersen was asked to participate in this year’s Volunteer Income Tax Program, created by her professor Dr. Dorata and co-sponsored by the Brooklyn Bread and Life. After receiving certification through the IRS website, Amy, along with other undergraduate students, was allowed to prepare federal and state taxes for low income tax payers who were not able to afford filing on their own.  “This experience gave me a glimpse of what it will be like to prepare taxes for individuals in the future as well as taught me the tax program TaxWise. I used what I learned about individual taxes in class to help clients decide aspects such as filing status and claiming dependents,” she says.

Although Amy claims that this was her best experience at Tobin, she feels all of the classes she took for accounting were beneficial because they each taught her a different aspect of the accounting field to help her prepare for her career. “In audit I prepared an audit case teaching all the different areas that need to be covered by an auditor. Throughout my various tax courses I learned how to prepare individual tax forms as well as those for Corporations, Partnerships, and S Corporations. I enjoyed my intermediate and advanced accounting courses the most. I feel as if through these courses I learned the fundamentals of accounting that helped me in all of my other courses,” says Amy.

Amy adds the city life, sports events, and friends as some of her best experiences while attending St. John’s. “I enjoyed going to soccer games on campus as well as basketball games at Madison Square Garden, followed by nights out in the city with my friends. There is always somewhere to go or something to do at or around St. John's. The friends I made here and the fun I had are the things that made me happy with my choice to attend St. John's University.” Amy is now searching for accounting jobs in the Manhattan area.