“You can see which students practiced and which were trying to take shortcuts,” she said.

Zinn recalls taking a very different approach when she was a student at Lander College for Women. Determined to succeed, she practiced interview answers in front of a mirror, refined her résumé again and again, and closely followed the guidance of Touro’s Career Services team. She still credits Dahlia Bellows and Sarri Singer with helping her secure her first internship.

“Everything they told me to do, I did 110 percent,” she said. “Touro is amazing. I owe it all to Touro.”

That internship ultimately led to a full-time role at Deloitte, where Zinn now serves as a tax senior consultant specializing in transaction tax. She joined the firm in October 2021 after graduating.

Zinn grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, and attended Darchei Binah before applying to colleges. Although her sister had gone to Stern College, many of her friends were choosing LCW, and she was drawn to its smaller, more intimate environment.

“I didn’t want to get lost in the crowd,” she said.

Part of her college experience unfolded in Manhattan, where she lived in student housing—first on 81st Street and Amsterdam Avenue, and later near West 59th Street. When COVID-19 shut down campuses, she returned home to Virginia and completed much of her degree remotely, joking that she attended “Touro Virginia.”

Zinn did not initially plan to study accounting. In high school, she considered becoming an orthodontist and later explored optometry. She began college as a biology major but quickly realized it was not the right fit.

“I hated it,” she said. “Definitely not for me.”

Accounting, by contrast, came naturally.

“I like when things are balanced,” she said. “I like when everything zeroes out.”

She recalls enjoying her classes with Professor Dov Ehrlich and feeling at home within the accounting program almost immediately.

“It was a really nice group,” she said. “The professors were amazing.”

While at LCW, Zinn interned at a real estate firm in Virginia before pursuing opportunities through the University’s career fairs and recruiting events. Her Deloitte internship, however, was shaped by the pandemic. Originally planned as a six-week, in-person experience at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, it was shortened to a two-week remote program.

“It was very anticlimactic,” she said. “I was looking forward to this grand internship.”

Despite the change, the internship led to a job offer. Today, her work focuses on sales and use tax rather than income tax. She reviews invoices and purchasing records for large companies, identifying missed tax exemptions and helping clients respond to state audits.

“Instead of telling our clients what they owe, we’re helping them get money back,” she said.

Her projects vary widely—from food manufacturers to energy companies to complex corporate groups with multiple subsidiaries.

“Day in and day out, I’m doing something different,” she said.

Zinn did not begin her career in transaction tax. She initially worked in another area of Deloitte’s multistate tax practice but found it unsatisfying. Encouraged by a manager, she pursued a transition to transaction tax, even though she knew the move might slow her advancement.

“I wanted to be happy where I worked,” she said.

Despite Deloitte’s global scale, Zinn describes her team as close-knit. She collaborates regularly with attorneys, accountants, and specialists across a range of projects. After her husband returned to school and the couple moved to Boston, she continued working remotely with the same team.

“Literally the day we moved, I opened my laptop and nothing changed,” she said.

Now, when she advises students preparing for interviews, she emphasizes both confidence and humility.

“You don’t have to know everything,” she said. “They expect you to be eager and willing to learn.”

Still, her core message remains the same as the one that shaped her own success:

“Don’t take shortcuts,” she said. “Do everything Career Services tells you.”