Everything Accounting Can Be

When Jay Arrington joined the Master of Accounting (MAC) program as its director of admissions five years ago, he had two key objectives: growing the MAC program and finding ways to better serve its students. He and Scott Showalter, program director and professor of practice in accounting, saw a glimmer of potential hidden in a struggling student organization — Beta Alpha Psi, the international honor society for accounting, finance and information systems majors.

“My thought was, we need to serve all students, not just the graduate students once they’re here,” said Arrington. “We need to create opportunities, show them a path that they can go down and start talking to them earlier.”

Five years ago, membership was down to three students. Today, the organization has more than 100 active members, and about 60% of students who participate in Beta Alpha Psi go on to enroll in the MAC program.

Arrington and Showalter’s approach was simple: make the meetings too good to miss.

“We made a concerted effort to really make sure this wasn’t just a club,” said Arrington. “It’s not a club; it’s an international honor society. There’s great value in it.”

Each meeting includes an invited speaker from a company related to accounting, finance or IT who is asked to present on a topic of interest to them, to the field and to the students. They aren’t just there to sell their company to the next generation of accountants; they’re sharing their insights into industry trends, unusual career pathways, new technologies and much more. 

“Deloitte isn’t coming to a Beta Alpha Psi meeting to talk about what it’s like to work at Deloitte,” said Julianna Lopez, a senior majoring in accounting and a former vice president of Beta Alpha Psi. “They’re coming to talk about changes in cryptocurrency over the past year, and then they’ll kind of shuffle in there, ‘Hey, this is what it’s like with us. This is how we deal with this.’ But we find it really important to make it educational.”

Through these meetings, students are shown real-world applications for the things they’re learning in their classes and how accounting can tie into their other interests to build a rewarding career. For example, when the FBI came to speak about forensic accounting, students learned that CPAs often make good field agents because they’re very detail-oriented. 

“I think accounting at large has a lot of stereotypes about its limitations, but people don’t realize that every single business in the world that has money flowing in and out of the doors has some type of accounting,” said Arrington.

Beta Alpha Psi meetings broaden students’ understanding of what an accountant can be and help them zero in on the type of work they would like to do.

“[The presenters tell] us about the basically infinite possibilities of things that we can do with our accounting degree, so that really gave me a sense of purpose, hope,” said Lopez. “It made me stick to accounting, and it showed me where I could go with it.”

Meetings include time before and after each presentation for students to talk with company recruiters — and for those recruiters to build relationships with promising future employees. For Garrett Hewett, a MAC student and former secretary of Beta Alpha Psi, attending meetings led to two internships and a job offer. He will join PwC as an auditor after he completes his master’s degree.

“After I did my first audit internship, I wasn’t actually sure that was what I wanted to do,” Hewett said. “But coming back the next semester in Beta Alpha Psi, I got to hear more from larger firms like PwC and hear what they did. And that’s what interested me in doing an internship with them. … When I interned, I loved it and didn’t want to go anywhere else, which I probably wouldn’t have thought of if I didn’t go to Beta Alpha Psi.”

“That’s why getting an internship is so important,” he said. “And that’s why Beta Alpha Psi has a really big impact for the students that come and actively participate.”

Both Lopez and Hewett are among the 60% of members who decided to continue in the MAC program, thanks in part to their time in Beta Alpha Psi and their relationships with Showalter and Arrington. 

“One of the scariest things for any student is applying to grad school. To actually be able to talk to the guy who’s over at admissions, it makes them feel a little bit more comfortable,” said Arrington. 

“If you come to the MAC, we have 100% job placement,” he added. “This past year, we had a 73% pass rate on the CPA exam, which is higher than the national average by over 20 percentage points. These are the high-performing people in the industry. They continue to go and have great careers, and we want to continue to do everything in our power to support our students.” 

This post was originally published in Poole Business Magazine.