{"id":58072,"date":"2017-03-24T14:38:24","date_gmt":"2017-03-25T00:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=58072"},"modified":"2025-02-05T14:04:56","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T00:04:56","slug":"uh-hilo-accounting-interns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2017\/03\/24\/uh-hilo-accounting-interns\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumna enlists <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo interns to help launch accounting firm of the\u00a0future"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_58075\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-58075\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/hilo-alumni-firm-claire-group.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"238\" class=\"size-full wp-image-58075\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/hilo-alumni-firm-claire-group.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/hilo-alumni-firm-claire-group-260x100.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-58075\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The fall 2017 Akau Accounting interns with <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo alumna and business entrepreneur Claire-Ann Niibu-Akau. (photo by Darryl Holland.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"clear-photo\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo<\/a> alumna <strong>Claire-Ann Niibu-Akau<\/strong> just launched her accounting firm of the future. Niibu-Akau graduated in December 2015 with a degree in accounting. She opened her business Akau Accounting this fall, and is looking to innovate her field.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&#8217;ve been doing bookkeeping and accounting for about 20 years, but I began this firm in November. I wanted to continue to support small businesses in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>,&rdquo; said Niibu-Akau.<\/p>\n<p>She has hired nine <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo student-interns to help her revolutionize her practice through technological advancements. The Akau Accounting organizational structure is designed to be a virtual online accounting practice. This allows for remote anywhere-in-the-world bookkeeping for clients and also provides the company&#8217;s student-interns with flexibility. Niibu-Akau, her employees and interns are able to work at the hours that best fit their schedules and meet client demand from virtually anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/larahughes.wordpress.com\/2017\/02\/24\/a-local-entrepreneur-enlists-the-help-of-seven-uh-interns-to-help-her-launch-the-firm-of-the-future-in-hilo-hawaii\/\">Meet the Interns<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Internship program provides a diversified and innovative environment<\/h2>\n<p>Niibu-Akau hired the student-interns after participating in the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo <a href=\"http:\/\/business.uhh.hawaii.edu\/\">College of Business and Economics<\/a> Internship and Job Fair. One of her main goals is to help people in the community, and she feels that having interns is a large part of that. As a recent graduate, Niibu-Akau knows what the importance of a good internship experience can provide for students.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I know that students are very capable and I believe that if given the opportunity, our <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo students have great potential for self-development and personal growth.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Of the nine students that have been hired, seven are focusing on accounting and two are focusing on marketing. Niibu-Akau says, &ldquo;The cool thing is that the interns are so diverse in skill and background.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The Akau Accounting interns hail from different areas of the globe including China, the Marshall Islands, <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and the mainland United States and bring expertise from various walks of life.<\/p>\n<p>Niibu-Akau expects that the interns will also help a lot of small businesses in the community. &ldquo;Interns bring a lot of great ideas, a high level of energy and will grow in their knowledge.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<em>Written by <strong>Lara Hughes<\/strong>, a <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo business administration student and former intern in the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo Office of the Chancellor. The story was originally posted on her blog.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Claire-Ann Niibu-Akau hired nine <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo student interns to help her revolutionize a new accounting business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[753,679,498,499,660,14],"class_list":["post-58072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-accounting","tag-alumni-recognition","tag-business","tag-college-of-business-and-economics","tag-student-recognition","tag-uh-hilo","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58072"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210336,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58072\/revisions\/210336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}