Sarah Nerdig ’22 hired at Big Four accounting firm

Sarah Nerdig ’22 recently accomplished what most accounting students only dream about. She passed the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examination with one of the highest scores in the state of Kentucky and earned a full-time position at Deloitte – one of the Big Four accounting firms.

From Kentucky to Newport, Rhode Island

Nerdig grew up in Kentucky, but she loved the ocean and spent many summer vacations in Newport with family who lived in Massachusetts. While she was drawn to the area, Nerdig always wanted to go to a large university. However, once she stepped foot on Salve Regina’s campus and saw the close-knit community, she found she wanted something different.

“When I toured Salve, I ended up loving it,” Nerdig said. “Everyone I heard from talked about the community and being really close to people and professors.”

The community aspect and growing bonds with her peers and professors is one of Nerdig’s favorite things about Salve Regina. “I had some of the most amazing professors and would not have gotten where I am without them,” she said.

Discovering her accounting niche

Nerdig came to Salve Regina as an exploratory student, but she discovered that she was good at accounting and enjoyed it. “I always thought I would hate accounting,” she said. “You always hear it’s so boring, but it’s actually not, and it can be a very rewarding path.”

After she declared her major, Nerdig obtained an accounting internship consisting of around 20 hours a week. As a tax and audit intern, she grew her experience at ClarkSilva, General Electric Appliances and KLR.

Nerdig graduated summa cum laude as an accounting major with minors in business administration and marketing. She was a member of the Pell Honors Program, president of the Finance and Accounting Club, and a writing consultant and subject tutor for the Academic Center for Excellence. She was also a member of the marketing honor society, Alpha Mu Alpha, and the business honor society, Sigma Beta Delta.

The road to becoming a Certified Public Accountant

The Uniform CPA Examination is intense, and Nerdig said that having a full-time job while studying for the exam was nearly impossible to manage. It took her several months of full-time studying to prepare.

Nerdig passed with flying colors and received the highest score on the auditing section of the exam in the state of Kentucky. “I am extremely proud of not only passing the four sections of the exam, but winning the award for the highest score in the section,” she said.

She recently started a full-time position as an audit and assurance associate at Deloitte’s office in Louisville, Kentucky, and also had offers from the other three Deloitte firms in Kentucky. “My internships are 100% what got me my job at one of the top four firms,” Nerdig said.

Once they pass all four parts of the exam, accountants need a year of experience in the field to become certified. Nerdig is working on her dream now, and she is excited to learn all that she can at Deloitte. In the future, she would love to become a partner at Deloitte, and if her history of hard work says anything, she will accomplish whatever she sets her mind to.

Article written by student writer Morgan Rizzo ’23