Celebrating Women In Business
By Ashleigh Plemper
Farmer Staff Writer
(Editor’s note: This is the third of a three-part series celebrating locally owned or operated businesses in honor of National American Women in Business Day.)
Growing up in a household that found college to be intimidating, getting a degree was never something that was encouraged for Rene Johnson, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) of Johnson & Co., LLC in Watford City. Which makes it even more intriguing that she chose to pursue her field of expertise anyway.
Interestingly enough, it was actually her journey to Watford City that sealed the deal on her fate.
“I remember my sister, Sharon, telling my dad, I want to go to college. And he was like, I don’t know...it’s really tough,” says Johnson.
As one of the few women in her field of software engineering, Johnson’s sister began letting her tag along to some of her college courses and by the time she turned 21, she had decided to take an accounting course at a local community college.
“When it was time to take the final, my teacher said, you don’t need to take the final, you got an A+ in the class,” she says. “Everyone else was struggling with it and I completely understood it. And that’s all she wrote - I was hooked.”
While her sister had planted the seed of learning that inspired her to obtain a higher education, Johnson says it was the encouragement from her husband, Cory, who was born and raised in Watford City, that served as the final push for her pursuit into accounting.
“I just needed a little bit of encouragement,” she says.
After completing her junior and senior year of college at Arizona State University, one of the Top 10 accounting schools in the country, Johnson was approached by some of the Big Six accounting firms at the time.
“I got four offers and ended up at PricewaterhouseCoopers,” says Johnson.
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