Terry student wins $25,000 scholarship from Deloitte

The Deloitte Foundation awarded a doctoral fellowship and $25,000 to a Terry College of Business Ph.D. candidate as part of its Doctoral Fellowships in Accounting Program.

Emily Griffith is the first Terry student to win the honor, which is given annually to 10 accounting doctoral students who plan to pursue academic careers upon graduation. The award money is meant to pay for their last year of coursework.

“This is the first time anyone from the University of Georgia has won. In addition to me winning this award, I felt like it was a reflection on the school and the university as well,” Griffith said.

Griffith was singled out for her research, which looks at new ways to help auditors in an increasingly turbulent era of auditing. She was inspired to research the topic after spending three years as an auditor before returning to school.

“My dissertation is focused on how auditors work with specialists when they’re auditing fair values,” she said. “This is an area that’s becoming more and more important and challenging for auditors. I’m specifically looking at how various forms of documentation by specialist affects how auditors make judgments about their clients’ fair values.”

Each year, accounting faculty members at approximately 100 universities are invited to select a student to apply for the Deloitte fellowship. A selection committee of three eminent accounting educators then chooses the recipients.