Elizabeth Ahrens, BS/MS audit student, has qualified to receive the highly-competitive Elijah Watt Sells (EWS) award in 2020.
 
The EWS award is bestowed to top-achieving candidates who earn a cumulative average score above 95.50 across all four sections of the CPA exam and pass all four sections of the exam on their first attempt. Out of more than 86,000 candidates who take the exam each year, only roughly 105-110 candidates (less than 0.2%) qualify for the honor.  
 
“My UNT education helped prepare me for the CPA exam by teaching me almost everything I needed to know for the test,” said Ahrens.
 
Ahrens also credits her accounting professors at UNT for inspiring her on her academic journey.
 
“All of my accounting professors have been amazing. They all have a lot of real-world experience and encouraged all of us to take the CPA exam,” explained Ahrens. “They inspired me to start my career in public accounting, because of the opportunity it creates later in your career.”
 
Ahrens is expected to graduate in December of this year, beginning her new role as audit associate at BKD in January of 2020.
 
While at UNT, Ahrens interned with two accounting firms—a summer internship with Cornwell Jackson and a spring internship with BKD, supplementing her accounting knowledge in the classroom and on the CPA exam.