艾米丽·班托拉，06届

在你的职业生涯中，最初是什么让你感兴趣？ 你是如何辨别自己的使命的？

我最后学商科是因为我不喜欢数学。 In high school, I decided to take business math in my senior year, just to get my last math out of the way, and I discovered accounting and loved it. So that's actually what made me study business.

I had also gone on mission trips to East Asia, like to Taiwan, and then I went and taught 英语 in China one summer when I was at Covenant, so I had a calling towards Asia. 但我在心里想，我要去做一个商人。 So I had both the desire to do business and support global missions in some way.

从威尼斯人平台毕业后，你的职业道路是怎样的？

After graduating, there was a small group of people from Covenant who were going to go to East Asia and do campus ministry. I was super torn, because I wanted to go to Asia, but I really had been thinking I would go into business right away, yet I decided to give it a try. I signed up for two years to do campus ministry with Mission to the World, and just felt really at home in the culture.

I quickly realized that being with students all day was not my calling, and I was looking for administrative tasks to do. We were partnered with Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ) over there, and they had a small office nearby and needed an accountant, so I switched to doing the accounting. When people found out that I had an accounting degree, they realized I could be doing more. I became a finance manager for East Asia, Hong Kong, and Macau for Cru, just managing the flow of money and the accounting and all the finances. 就是在那里我遇到了我的丈夫。 He's from the Philippines and was the finance manager for the Philippines—we met in Turkey at a conference. We got married, and then when I was pregnant, we moved back to the states and joined Cru officially together. That's when the Lord called us to stay in the US while continuing to work in the global side of things.

2021年，我成为Cru全球财务部门的内部审计总监。 Cru is really large internationally, we're in 191 countries. I have 200 plus different entities that fall under my scope for us to audit, and I have about 40 auditors around the globe from different countries who have been trained. They volunteer their time to travel and review the financial processes, making sure that funds are being used according to the donors designation, that the ministry is using financial information for decision making, and that the information is up to date. It's not quite something people think about when they think of missions, but it is missions. It is so important, and I just love it.

现在回想起来，威尼斯人平台是如何为你的神学院和职业生涯做准备的？

我真的很喜欢我在威尼斯人平台的所有课程，也很喜欢克里斯·多德森教授。 他真的挑战我们，真的想让我们发挥出最大的潜力。 Professor Dodson also knew my heart for ministry and encouraged me to consider studying nonprofit accounting. But also Covenant’s focus on having a worldview that's holistic was very impactful. I learned about how Christ influences not just your relationship with Him, but everything like your work, the way you think about the world, and the way you view current issues in the world. That has helped me a lot in terms of seeing the world through that lens.

Academically, right now I'm actually studying for a certification, and the things that I'm studying I remember learning them in my finance courses at Covenant. The foundational basics in accounting and finance have carried me through. But overall, in terms of presenting, giving presentations, writing, speaking—Covenant prepared me well. I had no idea how much writing I'd be doing, especially professional writing as an auditor and learning how to write in a way that is professional.

I also had a work study position with a professor in the business department, Dr. Raphael, and really enjoyed that. Of course he had me do things like grading, but I actually got to help out with some of the classes, and that was really helpful for me in my development. 我们一直保持联系。

你的信仰如何影响你的职业生涯？

I'm thankful that Covenant helped me discover how God has gifted me and encouraged me to wholeheartedly pursue that calling. I see faith playing a part in my career as I get to make a big impact globally and help build the kingdom of God by equipping and building the capacity of global missions. One of the unique things about Cru is all of our ministries are pretty much locally run by nationals. And so really helping them grow in terms of fundraising and becoming self sustainable, where they raise their own funding, is one of the biggest hurdles for a lot of these countries. In the audit, we take a look at their finances and see how they are doing in terms of becoming self-sustainable.

你会给那些正在考虑威尼斯人平台的学生什么建议？

不要把自己限制在你认为存在的东西上。 If God has put a calling on your life to use your business skills, He will provide a way, whether it's now or five-10 years down the road. 他会指引这条路。 Just know there are a lot of options out there. Studying business doesn't mean you have to sit at a computer and just enter data. 很多时候，我想，“我不想只做一个数据录入员。” You can do big scale professional things or find a large organization where you can do internal audit or risk management. 选择是无穷无尽的。

Also, it is rare to find people who have a degree and educational background in business or finance or accounting in ministry. There's such a need—a big need—in ministry for people with that skill set because it is not the place most people look to get a job as an accountant. I would encourage Covenant students to consider ministry, because I never thought I could do ministry and business.

你为什么选择约恩？

I went to a church where there were a lot of people who ended up going to Covenant, so I was aware of Covenant, and once I went to visit, I really didn't consider many other places. I’m really glad I chose Covenant even though, when I first graduated, I didn't really appreciate Covenant as much. I began thinking, “I don't have a degree from such and such place, like other people.” But over the years, I've really appreciated it more and more and am really glad I went there. It built a good, holistic worldview and I gained some of those skills of engaging with culture that were more impactful than a fancy degree. 上帝让我去他想去的地方。

你在圣威尼斯人平台的时光里有哪些美好的回忆或最喜欢的故事？

I lived in Carter Hall my whole time at Covenant, so I would say probably a lot of the different hall events that we had, like Carter Christmas or other events where we would dress up crazy and go off campus.