{"id":157620,"date":"2024-08-07T11:38:55","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T17:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=157620"},"modified":"2024-08-07T11:40:02","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T17:40:02","slug":"from-uncertainty-to-success-danielle-gaffney-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=157620","title":{"rendered":"From uncertainty to success | Danielle Gaffney \u201813"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Danielle Gaffney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In many cases, students do not have their career paths fully determined upon graduating from high school. Danielle Gaffney, a College of Business alum, was no stranger to this feeling. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on her past, Gaffney acknowledged, \u201cWhen I was going to high school, I had no idea what I was going to do. I just knew I wanted to get it done quickly. My mom then suggested, \u2018You\u2019re really good with numbers. Why don\u2019t you try accounting?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following her mother\u2019s advice, Gaffney applied and was accepted into the UCCS College of Business with an emphasis in accounting. Gaffney\u2019s introduction to the wide world of numbers was with Associate Teaching Professor of Accounting, Sheri Colcun-Trumpfheller. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd she just made things click!\u201d Gaffney said. \u201cI appreciated the way she taught and how she made the material more engaging and interesting,” she added. “She was also the one who suggested I become an accounting tutor. It\u2019s funny because now, a lot of what I do, is train staff. Tutoring kind of gave me a taste early on and I found it very fulfilling!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While at the College of Business, Gaffney secured an internship with Stockman Kast Ryan + Co, an accounting firm located in Colorado Springs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust six months after starting the internship I got hired with the firm, and from that point on I never stopped,\u201d Gaffney said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the flexible course schedule offered by the College of Business, Gaffney graduated from UCCS in 2013 in just three years, while achieving the distinction of summa cum laude at graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Gaffney is navigating her newly appointed position as Tax Partner at Stockman Kast Ryan + Co, a significant achievement for any young professional. Gaffney\u2019s day-to-day includes coaching and training a team of about 12 people, while helping clients with tax advice, getting them prepared and reviewing tax documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She adds, \u201cI like learning about people\u2019s goals. So, when working with both clients and staff, I get to learn what their dreams are and how I can help get them there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When reflecting on challenges in her career, Gaffney recalls receiving a bad performance evaluation. While she got reasonable marks for the technical aspects of her job, Gaffney struggled early on with maturity in the workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaffney took the evaluation fairly hard. However, she came to realize that those evaluating her weren\u2019t doing so because they were out to get her – they were offering suggestions because they wanted her to do better, to succeed. Through this experience, Gaffney learned she had to \u201cchange the narrative\u201d and understand that sometimes you need to be able to take the feedback that is given and learn to grow from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though still transitioning into her new role, Gaffney wants to continue to grow her staff, her knowledge, and solidify her own<\/em> path forward. And that includes raising her three-year-old son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those wrestling with the weight of career uncertainty, Gaffney advises, \u201cDon’t worry too much about it. Think about something that you want to try and go for it! It\u2019s okay to fail, just learn from it and move forward confidently in whatever you choose. You shouldn\u2019t follow anyone else\u2019s path. You should create your own.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In many cases, students do not have their career paths fully determined upon graduating from high school. Danielle Gaffney, a College of Business alum, was no stranger to this feeling. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":157621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,46],"tags":[370,369,40,332,60],"class_list":["post-157620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-business","tag-alumni","tag-alumni-success","tag-college-of-business","tag-more-news","tag-student-success"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Communique-Featured-Image-Danielle-Gaffeny.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-F0g","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157622,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157620\/revisions\/157622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/157621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}