Luther junior Wilson Sibandze interns at Ernst & Young in Minneapolis

Learning about professionalism and team dynamics, Luther junior Wilson Sibandze interned over the summer at Ernst & Young in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Ernst & Young, a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London, England, United Kingdom, is one of the “Big Four” accounting firms. The company’s purpose is to build a better working world through providing “insights and quality services” and build “trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies.”

Sibandze, son of Wilson Sibandze and Gladys Phungwayo of Manzini, Swaziland, is a 2016 graduate of Li Po Chun United World College in Hong Kong. He plans to graduate from Luther in 2020 with majors in accounting and data science.

For six weeks of his summer, Sibandze was able to rotate through the various firm service lines””tax, assurance and audit, and advisory. He worked with varying teams in the different services lines and their respective clients. Additionally, Sibandze gave a presentation a topic of choice to Ernst & Young’s partners and the senior manager.

Over the course of his six-week tenure, Sibandze “learnt a lot of valuable technical skills to use within the company and industry, as well as essential professional etiquette.” He especially valued “the level of teamwork practiced at the firm and how it helps the firm achieve its goals while also accommodating employee needs.” That teamwork was evident within each of the teams Sibandze worked with.

“Ernst & Young as a whole taught me how to carry myself well in a professional space, and also be wary of the way I communicate with other individuals. Not only have I learned interpersonal skills but I’ve also acquired more insight into the accounting industry. I have more knowledge to make better informed decisions about my career path than I had before I started college,” Sibandze said.

Approximately 10 percent of Luther students take an internship for academic credit each academic year. The Luther College Career Center assists students with their internship search through resume preparation, networking, online internship searches, career fairs, on-campus interviewing and connecting the student to alumni through the college’s Alumni Internship Program. Students also meet with a faculty adviser prior to the internship to create an internship learning plan that includes learning goals and assessment benchmarks.

An internship work supervisor assists in the process by writing an evaluation of the student at the end of the internship. Students also complete a self-reflection form to help finalize the learning experience.

A national liberal arts college with an enrollment of 2,005, Luther offers an academic curriculum that leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree in more than 60 majors and pre-professional programs. For more information about Luther visit the college’s website: http://www.luther.edu.