Nicole Earl’s restless heart ruled her young adulthood, directing her to give up a full-ride scholarship at Northern Arizona University in favor of international travel and outdoor adventure.

Satisfied with her early life experiences, she returned to her hometown of Cottonwood and employment in the service industry. She did well, rising to manager ranks at a local restaurant. Recalling 12-hour shifts and the resulting fatigue, she sought an escape route. The restaurant business, she said, “It owns you. My co-workers were smart, but they were tired. I didn’t want to be like that. So I kind of just revisited school.”

Nicole enrolled in a payroll class at Yavapai College in 2016, knowing it would be helpful for her restaurant job. Despite high school struggles with math, the college course proved a breeze. “I realized I loved it because it’s very detail-oriented and everything is where it’s supposed to be.”

The returning adult student parlayed her initial success and a budding interest in tax accounting in pursuit of an associate’s degree in accounting at YC. Along the way, she traded her service-industry job for a full-time bookkeeping position at a Verde Valley business and won a highly competitive scholarship from the national Teachers of Accounting at Two Year Colleges. Her stellar grades and school and community involvement also earned her one of the college’s top student awards -- the 2019  Vice President’s Award For Academic Excellence.

YC Accounting Professor Vikki Bentz recommended Nicole for the scholarship, calling her an “exemplary and dedicated student whose academic, career and community service accomplishments exemplify the criteria established for this scholarship.”

Nicole is on track to earn her associate’s degree in the fall, having recently wrapped up a required internship as a volunteer tax preparer with VITA. The program provides free tax preparation for low and moderate-income people.

Nicole commuted from Cottonwood to the Prescott Valley Library twice a week to fulfill her internship. She found the work rewarding and meaningful by connecting with many of her VITA clients on a personal level. And although they often were “anxious and scared” of the end result, they were always grateful for her help and very relieved. “They would feel like they conquered the world,” she said.

Nicole plans to continue advancing her accounting and business management skills at the university level and possibly tackle a CPA credential. Her ultimate goal is to establish a non-profit – “something that helps the community.” There, she can put her accounting expertise to work for a good cause and provide career training for young men and women who discover, as she did, an affinity for numerical questions.

“Numbers actually make sense now. They just show up in my head,” she said.