Monday, November 22, 2010
USI accounting team wins third place in statewide competition
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Betty Vawter Senior Editor, News & Information Services 812/480-1873 The team includes Aaron Field, a senior from Haubstadt, Indiana Celeste Drew, a junior from Elberfeld, Indiana Patrick McBride, a senior from Newburgh, Indiana and Anna Shade, a senior from Henderson, Kentucky. All are accounting majors. Shade is pursuing an additional major in finance. Jeanette Maier-Lytle, USI instructor in accounting, was faculty coach of the team for the seventh year. The team made an oral presentation in Indianapolis November 19 and was recognized that evening at the organization's CPA Celebration at the Indiana Roof Ballroom. As third-place winners, each of the USI team members received a $500 award from INCPAS. The team from St. Mary's College finished in first place the team from Valparaiso University finished in second place. The USI team qualified as one of six finalists to give an oral presentation after preparing a written case study. Other teams in the finals represented Butler University, Indiana University-Bloomington, and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. The case study for this year's competition required the teams to develop a proposal to help an accounting firm with client retention. The students' recommendations focused on areas such as customer satisfaction, marketing, controlling fee sensitivity, and generating new business. The team had to consider that the firm's clients were negatively impacted by the slow economy in recent years and were pressuring the firm to lower or freeze its fees. The proposal included suggestions for effectively capturing client feedback. Team members posed as partners in the fictitious firm to deliver a 20-minute presentation in the final round of competition. A 10-minute question-and-answer session followed the presentation. "The team gave an excellent performance and stood out among the rest of the teams," Maier-Lytle said. "Every year brings new challenges, but the overall experience is well worth all of the countless hours of preparation. I am truly blessed to work with such outstanding and dedicated students year after year." USI teams brought home first place in the competition five straight years from 2004-08. They won second place in 2009. Shade was a member of the 2009 team. She also was a member of a team of USI accounting students that placed first last June in the national Student Case Competition sponsored by the Institute of Management Accountants. Prior to the competition, the USI team practiced in a formal setting in front of representatives of the BKD accounting firm in Evansville. The INCPAS case study competition was created to give college students the opportunity to gain practical business experience. |
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