Braxton Bragg, '06, Parlays Jepson Internship into Job Offer

Outgoing Richmond College president and former JSGA senator Braxton Bragg graduated on May 14, 2006, with a list of impressive academic and service honors to his credit, including membership in Mortar Board, Omicron Delta Kappa and Who’s Who Among Students. He also graduated with a solid job offer, thanks to his Jepson internship. 

Bragg, who double majored in leadership studies and business, found his Jepson internship on e-Recruiting, a searchable database of job and internship postings maintained by the Career Development Center. The posting for an accounting intern with Beers & Cutler, a business-consulting and accounting firm, appealed to him because of the job itself and the firm’s location in McLean, Va., just outside Washington, D.C. 

“I’m interested in politics and business,” Bragg said, “and I thought I would like to be exposed to what D.C. had to offer. I also found that because Beers & Cutler is a relatively small firm, interns are really thrown into things and get a great deal of exposure as well as extensive interaction with managers.” 

One of Bragg’s primary responsibilities as an intern involved amending the tax returns for a multi-state firm. He also worked with a number of smaller firms to ensure their smooth operation and compliance to accounting standards.  

Although Bragg always worked with a more experienced partner, he did have a considerable amount of independence in terms of drafting the reports he sent to his supervisors, he said. His supervisors would review and correct the reports before sending them back to Bragg, giving him the chance to learn from his mistakes. “I learned that a misplaced comma can be very expensive,” Bragg said.  

His business major proved relevant to his internship in that it gave him a general understanding of business as well as much-needed technical training in accounting, Bragg said. But he cited his leadership studies major, especially his coursework in group dynamics and critical thinking, for helping him to gain a better overall understanding of the corporate culture of Beers & Cutler.  

“I relied on things I had learned at Jepson in my interactions with staff all the way up to the firm’s partners,” Bragg said. “My Jepson education made me a more impressive candidate to my manager and the partner who oversaw my work. It also made me more appreciative of the firm’s strong culture and its great sense of community.” 

Bragg impressed his supervisors so much that they offered him a permanent job, which he has accepted. He has already made plans to rent a townhouse in the D.C. area with two fellow University of Richmond graduates, leadership studies major Susan Vaughan, who will be working for the consulting firm Accenture, and business major Andrew Velde, who will be working for the real-estate and money-management firm of Jones Lang LaSalle.  

But before beginning his job with Beers & Cutler on August 8, Bragg plans to finish one last part of his liberal arts education. He always regretted that he never had the chance to study abroad while he was a college student, Bragg said, so he decided to backpack through Europe this summer. “I’ll fly into London on June 4 and back from Madrid on July 6,” Bragg said. “I’ll have a whole month to figure out how to get from London to Madrid.”