Wartburg has given me an extraordinary viewpoint into who I am

By Katie Hirv ’22

Wartburg College emphasizes the education of each student as a whole person, not just academics. For Jordan Flaherty ’21, her savvy business-sense combined with her majors of accounting and business administration allowed her to apply her skills to become a strong leader both in and out of the classroom.

“My involvement with Student Senate helped me figure out that I wanted to go into business and finance. Since my second year on campus, I’ve held leadership roles within that organization. Leadership management is really where I see myself. These roles have been so influential in helping me figure out where I want to be going forward,” said Flaherty.

Flaherty had a great sense of business from the start of her Wartburg journey, eventually leading to her being named the Outstanding Senior for the business administration major.

“When I was in high school, I took an economics class and thought it was interesting. When I came to Wartburg, economics was also one of the first classes I took. Over time, I realized after taking those economics courses, it was an easy segue to add a business major. I started taking those classes, then at the beginning of my junior year, my adviser encouraged me to add the accounting major to help me gain internship opportunities,” Flaherty said.

Through her involvement on campus and her connections with her professors and classmates, Flaherty found that Wartburg was a journey that helped mold her into the person she is today.

“(Professor) Justin Crouse is an all-around great person. A lot of people in the business and accounting side of things really look up to him for leadership. Dr. Allan Bernard is also very encouraging and helps pull out the best in people. All the professors in the business department as a whole have individually had a hand in getting me to where I am today from each of their classes,” Flaherty said. “Coming to Wartburg, you get a very holistic view of things here. All of those economics courses give you a wide-scale viewpoint of economics all around the world. This allows me to look at things from a 360º view.”

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has changed what she envisioned her collegiate years would look like, it also allowed her opportunities she otherwise would have missed out on.

“After my junior year, I began my internship with Collins Aerospace in the middle of the pandemic. I was fortunate enough that they decided to move it online. Throughout the summer, I worked with the general accounting team and had the chance to work on a lot of different projects. At the end of the summer, they announced they wanted to keep a few of us on throughout the school year. Normally, that opportunity would only be available to students in the Cedar Rapids area, since that’s where the internship was based out of, but because of the pandemic, I was able to stay on with them throughout the school year. I’ve worked with the same team for about eight months now. I’ll have almost a full year of industry experience before graduating,” Flaherty said.

Now that her journey at Wartburg is approaching its end, Flaherty has plans to move to Des Moines to work in business risk and regulatory advisory at PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the top four accounting firms in the world. While the transition from collegiate to professional life can be an intimidating time, Flaherty feels confident with the tools and skills Wartburg has provided her with.

“Wartburg has shown me I’m capable of so much more than I’ve ever imagined. The interdisciplinary studies have shown me that if you’re willing to put the work in, you’ll get something back. Wartburg has given me an extraordinary viewpoint into who I am as a person and what I care about,” Flaherty said.