Aiden Scoggins didn’t set out to fall in love with accounting.
Growing up in Chattanooga, he admits he “did not care about school or success” coming out of high school. What he did know was that he liked math and loved the world of business. He enrolled at a local community college to study finance, with a plan to transfer after two years. It was almost an afterthought, a single semester of an entry level accounting class, that quietly changed the trajectory of his career.
“I did well — not excellent, but well,” Aiden said.
That one class was enough to make him pause before his transfer to the Rollins College of Business at UTC. He had a tough decision to make: Should he stick with finance, or make the leap to accounting? He ran the numbers and found a deep bench of respected firms in the Chattanooga area and a solid starting salary.
Today, Aiden is pursuing a BSBA in Accounting at RCOB. He didn’t yet know that the degree would eventually teach him something no textbook could — a lesson that would reshape how he saw the profession entirely. “Accounting isn’t just numbers on a screen,” he said. “It’s process, people and precision working together.”
That phrase would become the theme of his entire internship experience, and the lens through which he now understands the profession he’s about to enter.
A connection that opened a door
Aiden found his way to Southern Champion Tray, a packaging manufacturer known for prioritizing culture and customer service, through a campus club called The Faith and Work Initiative.
Bruce Zeiser, executive vice president of Southern Champion Tray, visited the group to discuss what sets a person of faith apart in the workplace.
“I looked at their website the next day, and the internship had just opened up,” Aiden said. “So, I applied.”
He landed the role in Accounts Payable, where he investigated invoices, entered vouchers for missed payments, processed credits for overpayments and fielded a steady stream of payment questions. It’s hands-on, detail-heavy work — and he learned more than he expected.
Process: The moment it clicked
For months, Aiden was immersed in the mechanics of the job. He had a steep learning curve using systems like IntelliChief and JD Edwards. Early on, he was handed a few hundred statements to reconcile. The exercise taught him what his job required, line by line.
Something changed when he began a summer project focused on the purchase-to-pay process. He began to follow the full lifecycle of how an invoice moves through a company; from the moment it’s created to the moment it’s paid.
“We sat down and talked about what was actually happening to each invoice, and it provided so much context for my work,” Aiden said. “After that, I was extremely self-sustaining when it came to my job.”
This project helped him realize the connection between process, people and precision in accounting.
“When we started to dive into the purchase-to-pay process and what was slowing it down, I really figured out that you can invest all the money in the world in software, but if you do not have consistent systems and processes that align your people, they’re useless,” he said. “I could see that we had extreme knowledge within the company, but there was a disconnect across departments that was making it hard for people to understand each other.”
Technology could only go so far. What actually moved the process forward was alignment between systems, departments and people.
Precision: Doing it right when no one’s watching
A quieter, more personal conviction taught him the precision piece of his defining phrase.
“For me, I learned this in scripture,” Aiden said. “Whether you believe it or not, I think there’s a lot to learn from the idea that the Son of God was a carpenter.”
He thought often about the work ethic of Jesus as a carpenter. Would he ever make a bad table, put in half the effort, or cut corners to finish faster?
Doing things the right way became the main focus for his understanding of precision in accounting. Reconciling a statement correctly is about holding a standard regardless of whether anyone is checking.
People: The relationships behind the precision
Ask Aiden what he’s most grateful for from his eight months at Southern Champion Tray, and the answer has almost nothing to do with software or spreadsheets.
He remembers coworkers cheering him on before internship interviews and asking afterward how they went. He remembers his supervisor consistently checking in during a family illness. He remembers the encouragement he received before a difficult test — and the genuine excitement people showed when he shared his grades. He remembers the reaction from coworkers he’d known for less than a year when he got engaged, each one wanting to know every detail.
“I think the number one piece of advice I would give is to build relationships,” Aiden said. “Not fake ones, but real ones that can turn someone’s bad day into a great one.”
It’s the “people” piece of his defining phrase, made tangible. Process and precision matter, but neither function in isolation from the relationships that carry an organization forward.
What RCOB gave him before he ever needed it
Aiden traces some of his readiness for the internship directly back to the Rollins College of Business.
“Dr. (Stephan) Davenport and Dr. (Louis) Fayard, of course, both come to mind,” he said. “It was so cool to see real financial statements and look at what makes up a company, and to hear them talk about different variances and how they were affecting production.”
Those classroom moments gave him a head start in recognizing how the numbers tied back to decisions happening elsewhere in the business.
His advice to the next intern
Aiden encourages his fellow Mocs to be authentic. “When you’re going in for that interview and your guts are turning, I think it’s critical to remember that they’re human too,” he said. “At the end of the day, you’re an intern. They just want to know if you’ll fit in with the team.”
His approach: turn the interview into a regular conversation.
The takeaway
Accounting, Aiden learned, isn’t just numbers on a screen.
- It’s process — the systems that move an invoice from creation to payment.
- It’s people — the relationships that turn a difficult day into a manageable one.
- It’s precision — the quiet decision to do things right, whether or not anyone is watching.
Process, people and precision working together. That’s the lesson Southern Champion Tray gave him, and it’s the one he’s carrying into whatever comes next.
Let’s see where business takes you.
At the Gary W. Rollins College of Business, you’ll build skills through real-world experience, faculty who invest in your growth and a program that prepares you to lead with both integrity and purpose. Apply today to begin your accounting journey.
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