Elliott Davis, a leading business solutions firm with nine offices across the Southeast, announces that for the second straight year its summer internship program, ENVISION, has been ranked the No. 1 accounting internship in the United States by Vault, an influential source of ratings and insights for students and professionals. ENVISION was also rated the No. 3 internship overall on Vault’s annual 50 Best Internships rankings, regardless of industry.
 
“We’re honored that ENVISION has once again been recognized as a great internship experience,” said Rick Davis, CEO of Elliott Davis. “Our team works hard to provide our interns with an array of opportunities to enrich themselves both personally and professionally, and this honor offers proof that their efforts are resonating. The program reflects who we are as firm and plays an integral role in fulfilling our mission of making a positive impact on our clients, our people and our communities.”
 
ENVISION is a paid, eight-week summer internship that provides students with an opportunity to explore potential career paths, build relationships throughout Elliott Davis, and gain valuable real-world experience in public accounting. During the program, students work on client engagements, participate in community service projects, and engage in professional development activities. The ENVISION class of 2018 included 51 students, who completed more than 2,000 hours of community service and more than 6,000 hours of client service work.
 
This year’s ENVISION workshops, the majority of which were led by Elliott Davis employees, included classroom learning, small group and firm-wide discussions, self-assessments, and public speaking. Incorporating elements of the company’s future-focused, innovation-driven philosophy, the curriculum explored the role of collaboration in performance excellence and client satisfaction; highlighted the impact of evolving marketplace dynamics and how to achieve in a world filled with continual change; and studied the value of trust in building long-lasting professional relationships.
 
Outside the classroom and office, interns partnered with a total of nine charitable organizations throughout Elliott Davis’s markets. Service efforts ranged from helping solve the homeless crisis to preparing and delivering meals to the elderly. Upon completion of the internship, the experience prompted one student to say, “The opportunity to work with the same group and project every week was so incredibly valuable. It helped us develop relationships with each other and emphasized Elliott Davis's value of giving back to the community, allowing me to grow in my passion for that as well.”
 
The time and resources required to plan, coordinate, and execute ENVISION is significant. However, company executives view the investment as an integral component of the firm’s growth strategy.
 
“Each year, ENVISION attracts some of the brightest minds from colleges throughout the country,” Davis continued. “These young men and women work side by side with our team members, putting classroom concepts into action and immersing themselves in our corporate culture, which is grounded in service to all. The relationships we form during ENVISION don’t end when the internship does and quite often eventually lead to permanent positions on our team, making the program an important part of our firm’s future success.”
 
To compile the 2019 Top Internships rankings, Vault polled more than 13,000 interns from 122 companies about their internship programs to determine an overall score for their experience. Interns were asked to rate their experience in five categories: quality of life, compensation and benefits, interview process, career development and full-time employment prospects. These ratings were then averaged to determine an overall score from 1 to 10 for each program. Elliott Davis received a score of 9.59.