Jessica Luu

I attribute a lot of my success and what I know now to being resourceful and other people’s generosity. I've gone through a lot of things in my life, had to keep failing until I realized I have to turn my own life around. Treating other people with mutual respect for their time has also been key, because when you do that, other people are more willing to help you.

The best career advice is to just ask. College students are very apprehensive about reaching out and asking other people for help, even if they're strangers. Whenever I need help, I reach out to professionals. Seeing their input has really put me on a path that is a lot quicker and has directed me to even more opportunities and resources.

I would say numbers is only a fraction of accounting. It's the backbone of every single business. It requires a lot of knowledge of the law, representing clients, understanding of internal operations, and analysis. I’m usually either the youngest in the room, or the only woman, or both. People who don’t participate won’t be rewarded, so just rip off the band-aid and do what you think feels right—jump headfirst—and if things go wrong, there is nothing wrong with pivoting.

My biggest challenge currently is that there's not enough time to do everything that I want to do. I need to balance my relationship, my career, my nonprofit, and school . My biggest opportunities come from putting myself out there and being self-assured in my own abilities. As a college student with big aspirations, people have been very generous offering internships, shadowing, and I've been able to connect with other non-profits.

It is incredibly important to me to help people whose life hardships prevent them from helping themselves. Sometimes people can be a little bit prideful with their time. If someone has a problem, and I have the skills and the time to help them, I might as well solve it for them. That has really helped me connect with all different types of people and brought into my scope the professionals I know.