Hello! My name is Ashaunna Diggs and I am a senior undergrad student at Augsburg University pursuing a degree in accounting. I have a 3.75 GPA and have been on the dean's list 3 times. I am a part of Phi Theta Kappa and the accounting club at Augsburg. I have interned at two companies last year in accounting and finance to help me determine where I would like to take my career. Education is very important to me. Being able to learn about things that you wouldn't otherwise have easy access learning is a great benefit of college. You can pick the field you are interested in and pursue that. I feel that going to college is one of the best decisions that I could have made for myself. I am a 22-year-old African American woman and I feel that college has brought opportunities to me that I would not have been able to have otherwise. College has added knowledge to me that makes me more valuable to companies and gives me the leverage to take my career in any direction that I desire. I am graduating this spring and I was able to get a full-time position at an accounting firm that has great benefits. I just became a mom in December 2022 and knowing that I am able to secure good corporate jobs or even have the knowledge to start my own business is amazing and makes me feel grateful that I will be able to provide for my daughter while doing something I love. A personal goal of mine is to buy a house within the next 5 years so that I have a comfortable place to expand my family at. Throughout the past few years, there have been many incidents of me being homeless and not knowing what my options were. Being able to achieve my dream of having a house where I can feel safe and secure is a huge goal that I want to check off my list. Education put me in a position to eventually work at a job where I will be able to save and make my dreams come true. As a first-time college student, I was able to see the pros and cons of not going to college and going to college. I decided to attend because that was ultimately what it would take for me to get where I want to be in life. Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know me and I look forward to hearing back from you all.

Hello! My name is Ashaunna Diggs and I am a senior undergrad student at Augsburg University pursuing a degree in accounting. I have a 3.75 GPA and have been on the dean's list 3 times. I am a part of Phi Theta Kappa and the accounting club at Augsburg. I have interned at two companies last year in accounting and finance to help me determine where I would like to take my career. In my free time, I enjoy playing volleyball and hanging out with my friends. I just had a babygirl in December 2022 so she is currently my main focus and she is my greatest blessing. I just secured a job at an accounting firm called CLA in Minneapolis and my goal is to move up in the company and to get eventually get my CPA license. I am a first-generation college student so to be close to the finish line is a big achievement for me. I have been through many obstacles and for me to still keep pushing along makes me feel like I can do anything I put my mind to. I am involved in the community by volunteering at my church food shelf on the weekends. Now that I had a baby, I am not able to go as much as I used to but volunteering there is very meaningful to me because it makes me feel good to help people in my community get the resources they need. I did a finance internship at a company called Securian Financial this past summer and during that internship, I had the opportunity to be a part of an event where we brought in small businesses and helped them solve issues in their business at no cost. This experience was so amazing and made me realize how important it is for me to continue giving back to my community in that way as I progress in my career. I want to help people in my community understand how certain financial things work and how to help them make the best budgets and financial decisions for them to live comfortably in the future. I want to make a change in my community so that they are educated on the resources out there and make wise decisions for their future. Lacking knowledge about financial literacy is a big problem I want to spread the knowledge to more people. Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know me and I look forward to hearing back from you all.

Hello! My name is Ashaunna Diggs and I am a senior undergrad student at Augsburg University pursuing a degree in accounting. I have a 3.75 GPA and have been on the dean's list 3 times. I am a part of Phi Theta Kappa and the accounting club at Augsburg. I have interned at two companies last year in accounting and finance to help me determine where I would like to take my career. In my free time, I enjoy playing volleyball and hanging out with my friends. I just had a babygirl in December 2022 so she is currently my main focus and she is my greatest blessing. I just secured a job at an accounting firm called CLA in Minneapolis and my goal is to move up in the company and to get eventually get my CPA license. I am a first-generation college student so to be close to the finish line is a big achievement for me. I have been through many obstacles and for me to still keep pushing along makes me feel like I can do anything I put my mind to. I am involved in the community by volunteering at my church food shelf on the weekends. Now that I had a baby, I am not able to go as much as I used to but volunteering there is very meaningful to me because it makes me feel good to help people in my community get the resources they need. Attributes about myself that make me unique are my experiences. I am from a community where I am an outsider. I am considered proper when I am around the ones I grew up with. I like learning new things and I like feeling and being educated so I talk as so. Another thing that makes me unique is that I have a baby while going through college. I am young and trying to get my life together so for me to continue pushing through my education while having my babygirl by my side is something I am proud of. I plan to give back to my community by offering my services to them on how to get their finances in order. I want to be able to go to people who don't have access to financial services and help them create long terms plans for the benefit of there futures. Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know me and I look forward to hearing back from you all.

Hello! My name is Ashaunna Diggs and I am a senior undergrad student at Augsburg University pursuing a degree in accounting. I have a 3.75 GPA and have been on the dean's list 3 times. I am a part of Phi Theta Kappa and the accounting club at Augsburg. I have interned at two companies last year in accounting and finance to help me determine where I would like to take my career. In my free time, I enjoy playing volleyball and hanging out with my friends. I just had a babygirl in December 2022 so she is currently my main focus and she is my greatest blessing. I just secured a job at an accounting firm called CLA in Minneapolis and my goal is to move up in the company and to get eventually get my CPA license. I am a first-generation college student so to be close to the finish line is a big achievement for me. I have been through many obstacles and for me to still keep pushing along makes me feel like I can do anything I put my mind to. I am involved in the community by volunteering at my church food shelf on the weekends. Now that I had a baby, I am not able to go as much as I used to but volunteering there is very meaningful to me because it makes me feel good to help people in my community get the resources they need. A personal goal of mine is to buy a house within the next 5 years so that I have a comfortable place to expand my family at. Throughout the past few years, there have been many incidents of me being homeless and not knowing what my options were. Being able to achieve my dream of having a house where I can feel safe and secure is a huge goal that I want to check off my list. If I am to get help paying down my student loans, I will put some of the money in a savings account towards buying a home. Along with putting some of the money in savings, I would like to give some of the money to my little sister so she can go on the HBCU college tour that my church hosts every year. I went on there a few times and it was a great experience and gave me a new outlook on what is out there in terms of education. I think college is a boost in me getting the career I want and I want to make sure my sister gets the opportunity to realize the importance of education. Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know me and I look forward to hearing back from you all.

Hello, My name is Ashaunna and I am currently a junior in college pursuing a degree in accounting. I choose this degree because I felt that this would be a career that I would do good in. I always loved working with numbers and allocating money to the right places. My dream job is to be a financial advisor so that I can help other people make wise financial decisions. In my free time, I love to play volleyball and hang out with friends. Two things that I am trying to make more present in my life are traveling and reading more books. I want to be able to experience new cultures, sceneries, and people. My vision for the future is to graduate from a historically black college in the fall of 2023 with an accounting degree and then use that degree to get into my dream job which is being a financial advisor or being a budget analyst. I want the work I do to be meaningful and beneficial to the people around me. What community means to me is a group of people living amongst the same area, sharing the same resources, and having similar characteristics. My current community is in Saint Paul. I do love my community because I feel like it's filled with people who haven't had the easiest path growing up but are making an effort to better their lives every day. This community is full of hardworking people trying to find a purpose and a means to live a comfortable life and all they need is a little push to get there. I want to give back to my community by offering my services at low to no cost for them to know how to utilize their money in the best way possible. I want to be able to educate my community about taxes, retirement accounts, investing, etc. Those are concepts that many people in my community don't know much about and don't have the funds to get help with. Money is a big part of the world and all it takes is making some educated, wise decisions when it comes to your money for you to be set up comfortable and not have to struggle. I love setting up budget plans and providing resources to people that help take a weight off their shoulders. My dream job is to be able to help people make their way out of debt and live comfortably.

Their are many female leaders in my life that has inspired me tremendously. I feel like it was tough being a female and as the world is revolving, it is getting a little easier for us. Women has to endure so much struggle and hardship to be where we are at today and we are just now getting to a point to where our voices are being heard. I grew up in a family where it was always the female taking care of the family. My family is full of independent strong women who always did what they had to for their family to be comfortable. With that being said, a inspirational leader in my life is my mom. Thinking back to everything she had to do as a single parent of five children is very inspiring because she made sure that we lived a good life. She made sure that her priorities were straight and that we had everything we needed. She made sure that we were able to be apart of activities even though they weren't cheap, and she made sure that we were getting a good education despite the financial situations we had. I commend my mom for being such a strong and motivated person, climbing up the ladder in a world that didn't want to see her succeed. She taught me the skills I have today which has done nothing but put me in position to live a good life. She taught me the importance of what it means to go after your dreams and what it means to work hard for what you want. My mom is a big reason as to why I will make my dreams come true. I plan on becoming a leader through my career by advocating for the minority groups within this field. This career field lacks diversity and lacks the importance of what minority groups need to feel heard and accomplished. I want to be able to raise some of them issues up and make a change. I also want to become a leader through my career by giving advice and showing people in my community that it is possible to achieve your goals as long as you work hard and keep your head on straight. I currently work as an intern at an accounting firm and I have not seen not one person of color at the top. I would love to make it to the top and provide guidance for others coming from backgrounds similar to mine.

Hello, My name is Ashaunna Diggs and I am currently a junior in college pursuing a degree in accounting. I choose this area of study because it is a topic that interest me a lot and a career that I feel like I will be able to give back to my community in. I love working with numbers and understanding concepts that pertain to money and figuring out ways that people are able to make good financial decisions for their future. Growing up, my family struggled a lot when it came to finances and having money for basic necessities and I feel that my past is a big reason as to why I gravitated to this field. I feel as if this is a way to take control of the things that I didn't have control over when I was young. I am working with money which I did not have a lot of growing up. I am not able to help people that were in the same situation as me and to give them good financial advice that they otherwise are not able to get. I would love to be able to provide services to people who are low income and need help bettering themselves. Another difference that I would like to make is being an advocate for minority groups in the accounting field. I recently interviewed for a few internship positions at many accounting firms and one thing that I realized is that this is a field that lacks diversity. As an African American female, I would like to be an advocate in this field and speak up for the voices that aren't heard. I feel that their are many ways that this industry can improve to make the minority groups feel more heard and seen and I would like to raise awareness for that. I currently have a intern position at a firm right now and their are a few issues that I have witnessed that I want to be able to speak on once I get in position to. Lastly, I want to be able to show the people in my community that it is possible to be successful and to accomplish your goals. I want to be an example of a successful college student and show people that education is key. The education that I have received so far has been very beneficial and I feel like I am able to accomplish any dream that I have.