Accounting Student Wins City National Bank Scholarship

Ana Chena Davila is a senior at Saint Mary’s College, majoring in Accounting with a minor in French. She will graduate in May of 2019. In the summer, Davila works at Cisco as a finance intern. Davila came to California by way of Mexico at the age of 3, after her father took a job in the Bay Area. Her entire family is from Mexico, where she was born. She grew up attending Saint Bonaventure Catholic Church in Concord, California, where her parents worshiped and volunteered. She volunteered for eight years at the church as a youth leader, camp counselor, reader, and altar helper. Her senior year of high school she became a youth leader.

Davila is tri-lingual. She speaks Spanish and French. Her interest in French began in elementary school when she chose France as her country project. “I looked up the language, and it sounded beautiful. I decided I wanted to go to France one day. I figured if I wanted to visit France, I should learn the language,” said Davila. She has studied the French language for nine years. During high school, she was the President of the French Society. During her junior year, her teacher invited her to a French-speaking competition in Berkeley, the Les Amis de la Culture Francaise French Competition. She won second place. She has not yet visited France but has been looking forward to going there in the future.

Davila volunteered as a Technology Department Class Assistant at Monument Impact, a non-profit organization in Concord that helps the Latino community. “It’s an organization dedicated to the Latino community in Concord. The technology department offers pre-advanced and advanced courses for students who have never touched a computer but would like to know how to use it. How to turn on a computer, how to type, how to use the internet,” said Davila. She volunteered with the pre-advanced class on Saturday mornings.

Davila chose Saint Mary’s College after a member at her church gave her a tour of the campus. “I applied to a lot of schools, but I came to Saint Mary’s because it was the one I liked and felt like the best fit for me,” said Davila.

Working as an intern in the summer at Cisco Systems in San Jose started through a partnership with the College and Cisco.
After receiving the McClure Scholarship last year, Davila went to the Meet the Firms in September of 2018 and completed several job interviews. She has accepted a full-time position as a staff accountant at Thomas Doll, which will begin in July. There, she will also be working toward her CPA license.

“Although I had researched some of the firms and applied to one before the event, Meet the Firms was incredibly helpful because I had the opportunity to interact with employees from different firms, learn more about the position they were offering, and get a sense of their culture and values. Afterward, I applied to seven firms that I liked and spent the next month interviewing with them. They were extremely flexible and accommodated my schedule when I could not make the suggested interview slots, or they were very interested in the type of firm I was searching for.
All in all, it was a fantastic experience and it was a difficult choice to make, but I ultimately accepted a full-time position with Thomas Doll,” said Davila. “I am very grateful to the donors for granting me the scholarship.”