Matt Klassen
Business student Matt Klassen is wearing a $10,000 smile these days.
His name was drawn twice for different $5,000 prizes and his name announced at the School of Business and Economics Dean’s Reception on April 4, 2014.
One award is a scholarship and was for attending all 20 Business Kickstart 101 (BK 101) events this academic year. The other was through the meal with a mentor program. Klassen also won an offer of employment upon graduation from KPMG. Before then, Klassen will learn more about KPMG when he does a Co-op work term with them this summer. The Co-op placement is unrelated to the prizes.
Also receiving a prize was Kim Annis, who was the $1,000 scholarship winner. For each BK 101 event students attended, their name was entered into the draw for $1,000.
See below for a Question and Answer with Klassen.
View photos from the Dean’s Reception
Newsroom — I imagine the scholarship and having work after graduation has you a lot less stressed. How relieved are you?
MK — Very relieved and very thankful. The two most dreaded aspects of being a student (debt and the post-graduate job search), have been taken care of for me and for that I am extremely grateful.
Newsroom — What opportunities do you think the KPMG opportunities will present?
MK — KPMG is an amazing firm and I eagerly anticipate joining them in the summer and further down the road. The opportunity that I look forward to the most as of right now would be to finish up my undergraduate degree and begin going through the process of earning my CPA designation in accounting. An additional benefit to working with a public firm like KPMG is that their track record for students passing the professional exam is very high, and they offer an extremely supportive environment to do so.
Newsroom — Who was the first person you informed of the win? Did you inform by phone call, text, in person? Why that person? And how did the conversation go?
MK — My lovely wife of course. I called her and played coy for a couple minutes before springing the news on her. She was in obvious shock at first but the more the reality sunk in the more excited and thankful we both became.
Newsroom — Before this win, what was the the biggest, or a big one for you?
MK — I was lucky enough to win the Alvin and Lydia Grunert scholarship last year so that was another enormous blessing in paying for school.
Newsroom — Have you earned a nickname because of this?
MK — No nicknames as of yet, although shortly after winning a good friend posted a rather amusing meme on my Facebook wall. It said, ‘Win All The Money’ and was created using a rather amusing meme generator.
