Stephanie Rice’s personal mantra of hard work and commitment to excellence propelled her through two college degrees and two promotions in four years.
“I think success comes naturally when these two qualities are in place, and I strive for these qualities each day,” says Rice, supervisor and certified public accountant at Elliott, Robinson & Co. LLC.
A native of Mount Vernon, Rice chose Missouri Southern State University in Joplin for its balance of a quality education at an affordable price.
“My goal was to get out of college with zero debt or as little debt as possible,” she says.
Rice achieved that goal, leaving her college years behind without owing a dime, an accomplishment achieved through scholarships, a nest egg built through selling the descendants of the first cow her parents bought her at age 2 and working 20 hours a week as an intern at Carthage-based Leggett & Platt Inc. (NYSE: LEG).
Rice knew she would pursue accounting, but it’s a large field.
Her internship at Leggett & Platt gave her an inside look at private accounting, and she realized starting on the private side meant a slower rise through the ranks.
“I wanted to give myself that opportunity (for promotion), but now that I’m in public accounting, I love it,” Rice says. “I can’t see going anywhere else.”
She opted to earn her master of accountancy at Missouri State University to be better prepared to take the certified public accountant exam – at one point living in Mount Vernon while driving two days a week to Springfield for school and three days to Carthage for work.
“That was the toughest,” Rice says.
She started at Elliott, Robinson as a junior accountant in 2010, rising to senior accountant two years later and supervisor in January. She now has more responsibility for project planning to ensure deadlines are met and budgets are kept in line.
“I really like that we are big enough to do some really neat things but small enough it’s still kind of a family atmosphere,” Rice says of her firm. “It’s the best of both worlds. That’s what attracted me. And the people are great.”
She also works closely with one of the firm’s partners in her niche area of auditing employee benefit plans.
“When auditing retirement plans, you are acting on behalf of the plan’s participants to provide some assurance that the plan is being operated for the benefit of the participants and is being operated fairly and correctly,” she says.
The next career step for Rice is manager, and she’s got her eye on partnership.
“I would love to get there someday,” she says. “I think that would be a really awesome opportunity.”
Elliott, Robinson partner Bob Helm says Rice is well on her way.
“Taking care of client needs, solving their problems and helping them grow their businesses is also on the top of our firm’s list of things we want to do every day. It has been really exciting to watch Stephanie mature in her profession with clients now going directly to her for the issues they need help with,” Helm says.[[In-content Ad]]
