Thank you for considering a donation to the EY San Diego auditaBOWL team, fundraising for the Junior Achievement organization. My name is Briann. I am the auditaBOWL captain for the IT Audit group. We are competing with other departments in our San Diego office to raise funds in support of the Junior Achievement mission. We hope you will consider making a donation because of the excellent real world opportunities Junior Achievement provides to the young people of our communities. Read on for a nostalgic trip down memory lane, reflection on my experience in the Junior Achievement BizTown at age ten.

Junior Achievement was a piece of my childhood experience which eventually led to the world of EY. In fifth grade, I was fortunate to take a field trip to BizTown, a miniature city where kids experience real world roles within business and the community. Before attending, elections for the roles of mayor, judge, and chief of police were held. I fail to recall if the rest of the positions such as postal worker, grocer, banker were assigned or if we were given the opportunity to choose. Regardless, I obtained the role of entrepreneur. For this position, I had to develop a business plan, create product, manage my cash flow, manage my store operations, and even make sales. All sorts of "real world' challenges arose. If I needed to go to the bank, I had to close my store. I was unable to hire and pay employees at this point. Closing my store meant missed opportunities to make sales. In hindsight, the chaos that ensued when my shop was busy reinforced the importance of processes and controls in business environments. The strategy I used to determine my cash flows and sales, definitely sparked my interest in business. This intrigue was pivotal for me, but I would not realize it until many years later.

I come from a family of physicians, scientists and farmers. So I had little exposure, nor encouragement to study anything, except medicine or sciences my entire life. A university semester of cadavers and the smell of ager at the bio building quickly ended that pursuit. I shifted my focus to more of the "clean" sciences and ended up with a degree in behavioral neuroscience. I still did not feel passionate about the long range opportunities of this path, interested and curious, but not passionate. So I fell into the tangible world of fitness and started teaching group exercise classes and physically training individuals. I loved this, until I started being given more business responsibilities. I was hooked. Excel was my new best friend. Budgeting? Sign me up. I loved the fiscal puzzle and connecting with others to make things happen. At this point I decided to leave the non-profit fitness world and pursue an accountancy degree, where I thought I had finally found my niche in processes and controls, ratios, and financial statements. And then, I was exposed to the systems side, the tech side. At this point, I finally found my way to EY, and was given the opportunity to help others figure out this massive puzzle called business. And who would have thought, I'm almost right back where I started, in BizTown with Junior Achievement.

I hope you will consider a donation to Junior Achievement along with me. Junior Achievement provides an array of life skill development for young people beyond BizTown, in work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy. Had it not been for the opportunity with Junior Achievement to see the application of the theoretical concepts I was learning in school, I would have had an immeasurably difficult time bothering to do the work. I am certain this disconnection occurs for many young people who will be our future. Let's make a difference for our San Diego community. Remember all donations are tax deductible.