If there's one thing Chelsea Kelley likes, it's a challenge.

She arrived in Bloomington knowing that she wanted to study accounting at the Kelley School of Business. Once she started taking classes, though, she felt a little overwhelmed and decided to change her major.

That was short-lived. "My new major wasn't challenging enough," says the soft-spoken Indianapolis native. "I went back to accounting. I like the business school a lot because it's so challenging! When I go on job interviews, the recruiters are very impressed that I'm at IU."

And it shows. Of the "Big Four" accounting firms, Chelsea has already interned at two of them. Her first internship took place at Ernst & Young LLP in Indianapolis. Her job as an audit intern involved verifying the accuracy of numbers and lots of travel: to Kentucky, Evansville, and points in between. Chelsea also worked at the Indianapolis office of PricewaterhouseCoopers, also as an audit intern. She landed that position after working through a National Association of Black Accountants conference, which coordinated interviews for her at five companies.

Both internships required long hours and lots of hard work, but Chelsea wouldn't want it any other way. "Before I had my internships, I was kind of uncertain about my field. These jobs taught me what an accounting job is really like. And I found out that I do want to be an accountant."

Number crunching isn't Chelsea's only passion. She loves shopping (and claims that most of her internship earnings are "in the closet") and hanging out with her friends ordering pizza or making dinner. On campus, she's active in Union Board where she plans diversity programming. One of her successes at IU was the step show she coordinated with IU's Panhellenic Association. Chelsea also enjoys her work with the IU Office of Admissions Multicultural Outreach Recruitment Educators (MORE), where she shares her IU experiences with high school kids considering IU.

"One thing I tell people who are considering IU is to visit campus. You might think it's too big for you — and it is big in the sense of space — but most of your classes are only 20 to 30 people. And when you're on the campus tour, try to meet people. I met a girl there and we hung out freshman year!"

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