Student: Bennett Yeargan

Bennett Yeargan has gone above and beyond to help and serve others through his knowledge and expertise in his two fields of study: accounting and German language and literature. Yeargan is in his last semester at East Carolina University and will graduate this December.

Throughout the last four years, he has spent time traveling abroad, getting involved in campus organizations, and being a tutor at the Pirate Academic Success Center.

Bennett Yeargan is a double major in accounting and German.

“I think that maybe my brain is wired to learn languages,” Yeargan said.

His love for learning foreign languages started in high school, when he signed up for a German class. From there, it sparked a huge passion for Yeargan to continue his studies in the language and in the culture of Germany.

In 2016, he got to experience the culture first-hand as he traveled to the outskirts of Munich with the ECU German Club. The trip was geared towards helping Middle Eastern refugees that escaped to Germany and needed guidance in finding jobs and places to live. Yeargan and the club even helped refugees get started learning some basics of German.

“You could drop me anywhere in the world, and I’d be fine,” Yeargan said after attending that trip.

Yeargan even likes to think of his other major, accounting, as a language too.

“It’s just the language of business,” he said.

He credits a lot of his success in accounting to being a foreign language major. He said that learning a foreign language makes you think more critically and look at things from different angles to figure out what someone is saying, which in turn helps him think more critically in accounting.

Outside of classes, Yeargan has served as one of 50 representatives to the Student Government Association General Assembly. He was also a vice president of member development in Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.

Now, Yeargan spends his time as a tutor for both German and accounting at the Pirate Academic Success Center and remains an avid participant in the German Club.

After graduation in December, Yeargan will begin an internship in Nashville, Tennessee, with Ernst & Young. His hopes are to one day work internationally with accounting, so he can still use his German skills, too.

STATISTICS

College: College of Business and Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences

Major: Accounting; German

Age: 22

Classification/Year: Third-semester senior

Hometown: Fuquay-Varina

Hobbies/interests: NHL hockey, German, golf

Clubs and Organizations: German Club; Beta Alpha Psi

FAVORITES

Favorite hangout: my house

Favorite place on campus: Bate third floor

Favorite place to eat: Christy’s

Favorite class: German pop culture

Professor who influenced you the most: Dr. Jones

Favorite TV show: “The Office”

Favorite band/musician: Muse

Favorite movie: “The Departed”

Favorite website: reddit

MOTIVATIONS

Dream job: President

The one thing you cannot live without: oxygen

Role models: My dad and Barack Obama

What advice do you have for other students?: Always go to class.

Your words to live by: Treat people how they want to be treated.