Senior accounting major Thi Tran gained valuable skills and real-world experience through her internship with PPL during the fall 2024 semester.
Thi Tran gained invaluable hands-on experience during her fall internship with PPL. The senior accounting major put her knowledge to use on real projects, learned new aspects of accounting, and deepened her skills in collaboration and teamwork.
Tran discovered her interest in accounting at Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC), where she took various business courses. “Accounting naturally resonated with me due to its focus on problem-solving and analytical thinking,” Tran says. “I became intrigued by how data provides insights into the financial position of a business, and I’m eager to learn more about how financial information can be analyzed and used to support business decisions.”
So, she interned with Six Flags where she analyzed revenue and expenditures across various parks, and in an internship with Dorney Park, she conducted audits within the departments of the various parks. For the fall 2024 semester, Tran searched LinkedIn where she learned about the opportunity with PPL. The company’s strong reputation in the utility sector impressed her.
PPL brought Tran on as an asset accountant.
A regular day would begin with checking emails and team updates. She participated in team meetings where project ideas, updates, and challenges were discussed and addressed. “Throughout the day, I worked on a mix of independent tasks and collaborative work,” Tran says. “This balance allowed me to take ownership of my assignments while also learning from my team members. I often collaborated with my team to seek guidance to solve problems or clarify aspects of ongoing projects, which enhanced my understanding of the work and strengthened my skills.”
One of her projects involved accounting for land held for future use. She would track the sale or acquisition of land and ensure that those projects were correctly classified and that costs were accounted for. This project deepened her understanding of asset management and reporting.
Tran found it exciting to gain hands-on experience and be a part of real-world accounting work. She learned how to manage and track assets and is now familiar with the accounting information system Power Plan. She prepared journal entries for electricity and gas distribution processes and made sure records were kept accurately and classified in their appropriate accounts.
One of the most challenging but valuable experiences of Tran’s intership was her introduction to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) standards. “Understanding FERC standards and how they apply to asset accounting was both a challenge and an opportunity,” Tran says. “These regulations added more complexity to my work, as they require attention to detail and a solid understanding of compliance requirements. However, this challenge provided me a deeper understanding of how regulatory frameworks influence financial reporting and asset management. Through guidance from my team and hands-on experience, I’ve become more confident in navigating these complexities. Overcoming this learning curve was a rewarding part of my internship as it significantly expanded my knowledge and skill set.”
At Moravian, Thi has participated in the RISE teamwork and leadership program and says it played a significant role in her internship experiences. RISE helped strengthen her collaboration, problem-solving, project management, and communication skills. At PPL, she usec those skills to work with her team and contribute to team projects with a solution-seeking attitude. It has given her transferable skills that have made her internship more rewarding and helped her excel in a professional working environment.
Tran hopes to pursue a career in accounting with a focus on internal auditing or financial analysis. In those areas, she feels she can apply her skills in data analysis to better understand and improve financial decision-making within an organization.
She expresses her gratitude to the Moravian community and especially her accounting professors Mark Koscinski and Daniel O’Connor for their engaging classes that shaped her academic foundation. She also thanks Sonia Aziz, dean of the school of business and economics and professor of economics, for trusting her and offering her an assistant teaching position in the Intermediate Microeconomics class. She thanks her career strategist Kelly Gallagher for her helpful advice and Robert Brill, associate professor of psychology and director of RISE, for the impact the RISE program has had on her educationally and professionally. —Brooke Sliker ’25 (photos by Nick Chismar)