Suzanne knew when she arrived at St. Thomas Aquinas College that she wanted a career that involved travel. Because of her international experiences and with the guidance of her professors in the School of Business, she decided to complement her Accounting major with a minor in International Business. “This will hopefully allow me to work for a large firm that is worldwide so I may travel and see the world while working,” she says. “Who wouldn’t want to explore while doing their job?”
Suzanne Clarke caught the travel bug when she was eight years old. That was when she and her family took the first of two cross-country road trip adventures. Each trip lasted a few weeks, and Suzanne remembers overnighting at different campgrounds on the way to Salt Lake City, Utah and later, Yellowstone National Park.
“We saw Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore, got stuck in a massive hailstorm, and saw the amazing geysers and hot springs,” she recalls. “My favorite part was seeing the wildlife that roams Yellowstone. It is not often that you can drive alongside a bison or even see a full-grown moose!”
Suzanne continued traveling in high school, venturing to Germany on an exchange program. It was an opportunity that she says gave her an appreciation for different cultures, freshly baked foods, and lifelong friendships that began there. More recently, she returned to Europe to visit several cities in Italy, including Rome, Florence, Naples, Tuscany, Pompeii, and Venice. Her dream is to see as many places in the world as possible.
Suzanne, who is also an honors student, looks forward to studying abroad at the University of Oxford in the next few months, and next year, she hopes to visit Japan.
This semester, she is getting hands-on experience in her future career as an intern in the accounting department of Sterling National Bank. It is her second internship so far, following a stint as a tax intern with a local CPA firm last year.
One of the reasons Suzanne chose to study at STAC was the opportunity to play NCAA Division II Field Hockey, a sport she’s been playing since childhood, and competitively since middle school. “I love the team aspect of the sport,” she says. “It cannot be done with just one person, rather to win, you need all 11 players to contribute equally and support each other. At STAC, we are so close and united that we even refer to each other as our ‘sisters.’”
When she’s not playing on the field, traveling the world, working or studying, Suzanne enjoys spending time with her family, kayaking, and playing fetch with her cat, Chancellor.