My name is Joshua Auskalnis and my job title is In-Charge Accountant. I originally started as an intern
during tech season of 2020, and I’ve just now reached my one-year mark as a full-time CK team member.
What originally, I was looking for was to join the public accounting field, and so I was kind of looking for
smaller firms as I wanted to be able to know people and not just be another face in the crowd. That was
the beautiful thing that Cray Kaiser offered, was that I would be able to work in public accounting and
still be at a small firm. I basically get to experience all the different types of returns between S Corps,
partnerships, basically anything that Cray Kaiser prepares, I get a chance to experience that.

My name is Karen Hoban and I’m an accountant in the accounting services department. I’ve been with
Cray Kaiser just about two years. I joined in August of 2019. We have a few clients in accounting services
that come to us, they’re very small business people that have a good handle on their own small
business, but they don’t have a lot of resources. They certainly don’t have a lot of educational
background in the accounting or financial side of their business. So, it can be very rewarding to feel like
are helping the client, but in the process also teaching them and empowering them to take over some of
the processes that I think that they’re usually very intimidated by. Once they have learned how to take
on some of those tasks themselves, that they feel that they understand their business even more.

My name is Priyangiben Patel, and I have been interning with Cray Kaiser for almost seven months now.
My biggest takeaway from my internship was being able to apply the practical knowledge that I gained
from this internship working in the office to the classroom knowledge that I’m currently having. During
tax season, I did not have any experience with any tax returns, so it was nice that I was taking a tax class
and doing tax returns at the same time. Which helped me understand the concept better.

Before applying at CK for an internship, I did not know what I wanted to do, especially in the accounting
field, because there are so many options and different departments to work with. I was mostly confused
between insurance and taxation. With working at CK during tax season, it really helped me understand
that taxation is something that I would like to focus is on, especially for my masters.

I’m forever grateful for that. I did not know much before doing the internship here and it feels like I have
learned a lot from the time that I started to the time I’ll end. It’s nice to know that whatever I have
learned in terms of filing returns, helping the accounting services team with the PPP and ERC credits,
helping the audit team, I will be able to apply all of it to my college experience and job.

I think CK’s culture is very diverse and friendly. From the time that I have joined the firm, I was treated
very nicely by everyone. When I was unsure about something, it felt like I was able to go to anyone for
help, whether it was the partners or coworkers or supervisors, my questions were being answered nicely.
One thing I would like someone who’s considering joining the CK intern team to know is that at the
internship role definitely helps them understand the accounting world better in terms of whether they
want to focus on one field, one aspect of accounting or focus on many other things.

Then, I also want them to know that they will feel very welcomed and welcomed by the entire CK team,
as they’re very helpful. If I were to rate my overall experience at Cray Kaiser, I would definitely give it a 10
out of 10 because it was amazing to work with the team here. Before interning here, don’t be afraid that
you don’t know much about accounting, from what I have learned, I think you will definitely understand
a lot more after joining this team here. They will help you answer your questions and help you
understand the accounting world better.

Hi. So my name is Thomas Cirrincione. I had the opportunity to intern last summer of 2020, and then
again, this summer of 2021, and then additionally, in between over winter break of 2020. I’ve made my
rounds. In my summers here as an intern and then my one little stint over the winter, I’ve kind of been a
utility knife, kind of getting my hands on as many different things as I could. Everything from
administrative work to employee benefit audits to year end audits and going out in the field and helping
with inventory counts. My goal was to try and learn as much as I could and get my hands on as many
different aspects of the business as possible. I think I really achieved that through my time here so far.

One thing that I would say was a great takeaway from this experience was learning that everyone here
from the top to the bottom, whether it was a partner who’s planning for retirement, a partner who just
made partner or a full-time staff who just finished their internship and are now on full-time. Everyone
here is there to help you and willing to help and encourages questions, because that means that you’re
learning and that you care.

Something that I will take away from my internship going back to school and this is one reason why I
encourage people to take internships as early as they can, is because you now have these real-life
scenarios and situations that you’ve seen applied to your clients or learned about from your peers.
When you’re going back to school and learning about these situations, it’s a lot easier to understand
them if you understand their context and their application.

So that’s one thing that I would really recommend younger students take into consideration and I will be
bringing back to school with me as well. Throughout my two consecutive summers here, I could still see
how much growth that Cray Kaiser has and is going to have. You could see that evidence through the
managers and the partners and how much they care about recruiting and how much they are asking the
opinions of the younger people and how they want to grow the internship program and grow the
experiences they’re able to give. That these students that are there for just a short time and how to keep
them involved and engaged. I think that was really special to show how much they really cared about it. I
think moving forward, what I have learned the most is just continue to be curious and don’t really set
your mind on one specific route or track. Even if it’s something that interests you, you can still pursue
that, but keep your options open to other routes and ideas. That’s the way you’re going to see the most
growth.

My name is Maria Gordon, and I am a tax senior here at Cray Kaiser. I just finished my fifth tax season at
Cray Kaiser. One of our principles Karen, she’s the head of tax, she personally is my mentor in our mentor
program, but even beyond that, she is such a wealth of tax knowledge that I know if there’s ever a topic,
I’m hitting a dead end on, I can go to Karen and, she’s like, “well, have you looked at this?”. You kind of
thump yourself on the head like, “oh yeah, I didn’t even think about that”. I think having someone like
Karen with all of her, not just knowledge but experience, she just has seen so much over the years with
all her clients that it is such a benefit to me. I feel like I’m becoming a person like her. I’m becoming more
experienced and more knowledgeable about a wider range of tax issues, and that makes me more
helpful to my clients.

My name is Rolake Adedara. I’m an assurance manager here at CK. I’ve been with Cray Kaiser since
generally of 2021, so about six months now. If I may just speak to the mentoring process here, really,
really huge thing here at Cray Kaiser. Somebody said that you are not a success until you have a success.
I think that the mentoring program here at Cray Kaiser really points to the fact that the leadership is
interested in our career. They are interested in our growth, they are interested in our learning and also
becoming whatever our goals are here at CK and in our career.