New MSU-Meridian accounting grad heads to Washington

MERIDIAN, Miss.—After having put himself through school, a December graduate of Mississippi State University-Meridian now heads to the nation’s capital to take on future challenges.

With a new accounting degree in hand, Robert S. Grant is joining the Washington, D.C., audit and consulting staff of Harper Rains Knight & Co., P.A.

A 27-year-old Birmingham, Alabama native, Grant moved to Meridian in 2013 to work fulltime at Meridian Community College’s E-Learning Center. After settling in, he enrolled at MSU-Meridian because it could provide “a good environment for me to succeed,” he said recently.

“MSU-Meridian has awesome facilities downtown and the Deen Building (where accounting classes are held) is beautiful, but it’s really about the people,” he said, adding that members of the accounting faculty “truly were instrumental in my success.”

He gave a special thanks to associate professor Kevin Ennis and assistant professor Joseph Faello for bringing “a wealth of real-world work and life experiences into the classroom. They shared [their experiences] in such a way that correlated directly to what we were learning.” 

As graduation approached, Grant interviewed with several firms and received multiple job offers. During the just-completed fall semester, that Jackson-based accounting firm he is joining was among participants in the MSU Career Center’s annual Accounting Career Fair. 

From their first visit together, Harper Rains Knight seemed to offer “the right fit,” he said. After traveling to the Washington office and meeting one of the partners and other staff members, there was no doubt this was the opportunity he just couldn’t pass up.  

The firm primarily conducts audits of federal governmental departments and agencies. Since the Department of Defense is on that list, Grant said he may have an opportunity to “work in the Pentagon a little.”

As with any university student completing a degree program and immediately beginning work in a corresponding professional field, Grant is one happy alumnus. “It’s just very exciting, it really is,” he said, with a big grin.

“This is a fantastic career building experience that will allow me to meet and work with a diverse group of people and be exposed to all that D.C. has to offer. I can’t wait.”  

MSU PHOTO ID: Accounting graduate Robert Grant, takes a break in the lobby of the Deen Building, part of Mississippi State University-Meridian’s Riley Campus in downtown Meridian. Grant, a native of the Birmingham area and highest honors student took part in MSU-Meridian’s fall commencement [Dec 11] and is now headed to Washington, D.C. where he will be employed by Harper Rains Knight & Co., P.A.


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