Montana State University

06/17/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/17/2025 11:06

It adds up: Montana State accounting student wins national scholarship

BOZEMAN - Miles Sumner, an accounting student at Montana State University, received a prestigious national scholarship this spring that will pay his way through graduate school.

The scholarship program is funded by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and awards $15,000 to dozens of undergraduate and graduate students across the country who are likely to become auditors. Sumner is the only student from MSU to win the scholarship this year.

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Accounting student Miles Sumner received a prestigious national scholarship from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board in spring 2025.

Originally from Kennewick, Washington, Sumner is majoring in finance and accounting and minoring in entrepreneurship and small business management. He has one semester left of his undergraduate degree in the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship and then will attend the master of professional accountancy program at MSU.

"This will basically allow me to go through grad school debt-free," said Sumner, who hopes to work as a certified public accountant after graduate school. "I'll be able to fully focus on school and studying for the CPA exam, and I maybe won't have to get a job on top of school now. My goal is to get my CPA license, and now I'll have more time to work towards that."

Sumner, who has always had an affinity for math and numbers and started trading stocks in high school, originally intended to only study finance. But when he started helping his friends with accounting homework, he started to enjoy it and appreciated the background knowledge it gave him for finance. He realized the two fields complimented each other and, with the encouragement of his professors, found a good balance in studying both. Working with numbers is very satisfying, he said.

Sumner commended the professors in MSU's business college, describing them as "excellent." In particular, accounting professor Angela Woodland grew his interest in accounting and made her classes engaging by sharing personal stories about her time working for auditing companies. Woodland has been one of his biggest supporters and encouraged him to apply for the scholarship, he said.

Woodland said that in his application, Sumner excelled at explaining how he demonstrates high ethical standards in his pursuit of public accounting as a profession.

"It is important that accountants in public practice demonstrate integrity in all they do professionally, and Miles understands that integrity is foundational," Woodland said. "As a student, Miles is already reliable, competent, respectful, a great communicator, and a genuinely interesting and friendly person to be around. We want this kind of person to shape the profession of accountancy."

Additionally, Marc Giullian, an accounting professor who also directs the MPAc program at MSU, has been a huge help for Sumner in figuring out his career. His office hours are welcoming, and he's always available to answer questions, either related to academics or life in general, Sumner said.

Sumner is not waiting until graduate school to get professional experience. This summer, he is living in Seattle and working as a tax intern for KBF Certified Public Accountants, where CPAs provide tax services to corporations. It's his first full-time internship and "a way to get his foot in the door." He also did part-time tax work for the Amatics CPA Group in Bozeman last spring.

In past summers, Sumner has worked as a wildland firefighter. Outside of school, he is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and enjoys outdoor activities like flyfishing, skiing and hiking. He's excited to stay in Bozeman and continue attending MSU, as the campus has grown quite familiar to him.

Asked what advice he would give to younger students, Sumner encouraged others in the business college to give accounting a chance.

"Lots of people tend to write it off as boring, but you never know. I decided to give it a chance, and it turned out to be what I want to do as a career," he said.

Montana State University published this content on June 17, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on June 17, 2025 at 17:06 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at support@pubt.io