Hello everyone! My name is Hayley Hewlett, and I will be participating in the London GBI-International Accounting Issues program for Pitt Study Abroad.

I am an accounting major in the 3+1 MACC program with a minor in economics. I will be done with my undergraduate portion of the program next Spring.

On an academic and professional level, I am a teaching assistant for financial accounting! I will continue doing this in the Fall. I also am President of Beta Alpha Psi, a professional and honorary academic fraternity. While in high school, I worked for two years as a Fashion Ambassador for Nordstrom. To add, I interned last summer at Wells Fargo Advisors, dealing with stock and fund portfolio research. This summer, I will have an internship at The London Edition in the accounts receivable and accounts payable departments. I hope to go into public accounting post-graduation and become a CPA.

A little about me outside of school and work: I am originally from Allison Park, PA, which is just 16 miles north of Pittsburgh. I have four dogs at home that I miss very much while I am at school. Their names are Bella, Lady, DaVinci, and Scout. My main “hobby” would be shopping, if that is allowed to be considered a hobby. I also really enjoy going to concerts and listening to music (Sting, Elton John, and The Beatles are my favorites!).

As I mentioned earlier, I am participating in the London GBI-International Accounting Issues program, and I am beyond excited to be able to do this! I have never gone overseas, so this will be a very new experience for me. I chose this program specifically because it delves into the accounting field, which is perfect for me; I hope to become an accountant someday! I will gain professional experience from the internship as well as learn so much about the industry through an international accounting issues class taught by a Pitt professor! On a personal note, as I previously said, all of my favorite musicians are British; perhaps I’ll take a day to go Liverpool for The Beatles Tour 😉

I will learn so much from this endeavor: real-life work experience in accounting, education about the variances between the U.S. system of accounting versus the way everyone else in the world does it, and a new perspective on life. This is very outside my comfort zone and unlike me. Being an accounting major tends to make you a very routine person 🙂 My hope is for this trip to allow me to try new things and experience the world in a different way.

Thank you all for reading this post, and I will keep you updated after I am officially in London. I look forward to sharing my journey with you all and hopefully give you insight or perspective as to how I see the world!