Business Scholar Took Advantage of Campus Opportunities to Become The Man I am Today

As he looks back on his time spent at UC, senior

Kyle Quinn

says he could not have scripted it any better. From campus leadership opportunities and co-op, to a yearlong study abroad in Brazil, the Lindner Honors-PLUS scholar will graduate in December 2013 with a career and commitment to grad school.

“Life’s about to hit me hard, but I’m ready,” he says of the responsibilities of full-time work and pursuit of a master’s degree.

Quinn, an accounting major in the Carl H. Lindner College of Business, landed a dream job in the financial services tax group at PwC in Chicago. He’ll also be studying for the CPA exam while enrolled in the online Master of Science in Taxation program at the Lindner College of Business.

For Quinn, the road to his academic and career success meant taking advantage of many opportunities. This agenda to seize every prospect became increasingly important after a 2009 car accident. He and four fellow Pi Kappa Alpha (PIKE) fraternity brothers rolled their car on a trip to Tennessee. Quinn, Jon Doerger, A&S ’11) Dan Rehard, BBA ’14, surfaced with recoverable injuries. Mike Jarvis, BBA ’13, and Ryan Atkins sustained spinal cord injuries that left them paralyzed.

The accident stirred Quinn to follow his passions and pursue many experiences. As a freshman, Quinn was appointed by former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland to serve as a student representative on the UC Board of Trustees, UC’s highest level of policy making. He was appointed by former UC President Gregory H. Williams to serve as vice chair on the Presidential Bicentennial Commission.

In 2011, Quinn took part in the Starting Bloc conference at Tufts University in Boston, where he and 65 other students from around the world worked on social innovation projects. He was part of a Lindner team of students who became top five national finalists in the PwC tax competition, winning $10,000 and presenting their ideas for tax policy reform to fund federal healthcare reform in Washington DC.

For his leadership and commitment to public service, Quinn was nominated for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship; a competitive national award granted to U.S. college juniors and was also UC’s nomination for the prestigious Rhodes and Mitchell Scholarships, the latter of which he was a national semi-finalist. He also serves as a Junior Orange Bowl Committee member and has annually worked on the host committee for the football championship series game since 2009.

He landed a co-op job at Ernst & Young and won a Boren Award for International Study in Brazil from the US National Security Council. Quinn spent the 2012-2013 school year studying business at Fundação Getullio Vargas (FGV) in São Paulo, Brazil, where he studied advance business courses, became fluent in Portuguese, hiked the Amazon Jungle,climbed Machu Picchu in Peru and fell in love.

Pi Kappa Alpha’s national chapter awarded Quinn with the Most Outstanding Undergraduate Award of 230 chapters in the U.S. and Canada. When he received the award in Memphis, Tenn., in August 2013, his

speech

referenced the life-changing accident. “It was a transformative experience that now brings meaning in everything I do,” he says.

As he embarks on a new life chapter, he anticipates his job with PwC, a big four accounting firm, will “offer unparalleled experience in big business tax” that will ultimately steer him closer to his career goal of national intelligence work, Quinn says. With interests in tax policy and tax law,he speaks of law school in his future.

With a wealth of service and leadership experiences, Quinn says he applied for UC’s Presidential Leadership Medal of Excellence that gets bestowed at graduation in May. Though he’ll be working in Chicago and completing online studies, he’ll stay connected to Lindner, as he’s slated to lead the first Lindner Honors-PLUS group to South America in spring 2016. He and his girlfriend Isabel are busy planning the visit by creating academic partnerships for Lindner with South American businesses.

As he reflects on his UC experiences, he’s quick to say it’s been great. “That’s what makes this institution so great, it’s transformative, it’s way more than sitting in a lecture, passing an exam and being handed a diploma,” he says. “It has prepared me academically and shaped me into the man I am today.”