The Collegio Pittsburg's student voice since 1916
Alyssa Tyler editor in chief
With an office placed on the second floor of Russ Hall, Nicole Rich has been named the new internal auditor for Pittsburg State University.
This is not the first time Rich has been to Pittsburg State University, she graduated in 2008 with a bachelor’s in accounting. After graduating Rich spent many years at State Street Bank working for the organization in a variety of positions.
“I’m from the area, I went to school in Arma, Northeast High School. I came here, got my bachelor’s in accounting, and graduated in 2008. And I was young, and I wanted to get out and to expand my wings, so I went out to Kansas City for a job, I worked at State Street Bank for 11 years. And I kind of worked all over the organization, I worked in the accounting team, the income team, and then I did what they call, a bridge team. Where you work directly with the clients and the auditors, and anytime there’s an external audit you help them analyze, research, and resolve any questions of their controls that they are looking through,” Rich said. “This came up, and I always knew that I wanted to come back to Pitt State, kind of give back, based on the experience that I had.”
This new position will not just focus on one aspect of Pittsburg State University, rather it will focus on anything and everything the university does. Rich described an internal audit as testing all of the controls, in each department. No matter how big or how small they may seem.
“I’m still learning, although it’s very exciting. I will kind of get to learn about the university. All the ins and outs of all of the departments, not just the financial aspects of it. In my background I’m used to just the financial part of it, financial statements, the accounting records, all of that stuff. But in this role, I get to learn about the college of technology and like the art department,” Rich said. “All of these places that I didn’t necessarily have experience with as a student, that’s the exciting part. Getting to learn how the university as a whole functions and operates.”
Rich will have the opportunity of having a graduate assistant to help mentor and guide them.
I was a fulltime work from home employee for four years. So, I’m very much looking forward to social interaction with people again. And to be back on campus, and like I said, to hopefully mentor students,” Rich said. “With this position, I will have the option of having a graduate assistant at some point, once I figure out the role and everything. And to be able to mentor them and to guide them into a business as a field, that would be fantastic.”
“Coming from a small school like Arma, I feel like Pitt State felt big and small at the same time. You still had that one-on-one connection with your teachers, but it was still so diverse that you had people from all walks of life in your classes. And so that’s what’s really cool about Pitt State in my opinion,” Rich said.