Avis Williams

Hoover High School Academy of Finance '09
Hoover, AL

“I did my first internship at Baptist Hill Center, Patient Financial Services in Hoover. One of my first projects was looking through all the check receipts to find ones that were missing. It was about 20 boxes. My coworkers thought it would take me a week, but I finished in three days. I thought, I’m already representing my finance academy. By doing that job in less time, I was letting the older generation know we are full of fuel and ready to go, anxious to get busy and start working. Usually, you work at a mall or grocery store and here I was  in a corporate office. When I got my first paycheck, I was in awe. The first thing I did was I got a checking account.

“I remember my sophmore year, we started learning about buying houses. I always thought you need to be rich to buy a house. But at my academy, we found out you can make a downpayment, get a mortgage. So, that became my first goal. I started thinking, If I can own a house, then can I own an apartment building? If I can own a building, then can I own my own business?”