Accountancy News 

As an undergraduate student at BYU, Christine Parks initially joined the accounting program simply because she enjoyed the subject of accounting. Now as a MAcc student at the School of Accountancy (SOA) at BYU Marriott School of Business, Parks loves the accounting program for additional reasons, namely, the unique opportunities that the program gives her to interact with other people.

When she was a freshman at BYU, Ashley Weiler's first meeting with the Women of the School of Accountancy (WSOA) club left her in awe. Through the WSOA, Weiler finally found the missing piece of her BYU education: a place where she belonged. Now as the president of the WSOA, Weiler hopes to show incoming female students that they can also feel at home in the accounting program.

As Tim Seidel neared the end of his undergraduate journey at BYU, he did not expect to enter the field of accounting, let alone ultimately teach the subject at BYU Marriott School of Business. But when opportunities to change courses presented themselves, Seidel took them, trusting that he could face any challenge or obstacle head-on—and overcome them. 

Every year, each department in the BYU Marriott School of Business selects one outstanding student to receive the Bateman Award, which recognizes excellence both inside and outside the classroom. The award is named after Merrill J. Bateman, who served as the dean of BYU Marriott from 1975–79 and the president of BYU from 1996–2003. 

BYU Marriott fared well in the recently released U.S. News & World Report 2022 rankings for graduate programs. Both the MBA and MPA programs were ranked, as were four graduate program emphases.

After struggling through her high school Spanish class, Erin Kenedy, a junior from the School of Accountancy at the BYU Marriott School of Business, vowed never to speak Spanish again. When she received her call to serve a Spanish-speaking mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Lima, Peru, she dreaded needing to continue learning Spanish. However, this was one of many life experiences that led her to the strong belief that learning is not just about gaining knowledge but about experiencing growth.

Recent headlines have been buzzing with news of an unpredictable stock market thanks to the recent surge of GameStop share price. By now the story is widely understood — after several wealthy hedge funds bet on the video game retailer to decrease in value, a band of investors came together through a Reddit forum to drive the price of the stock up nearly 1,500%, an act surprising millions of Americans and leaving many to wonder where the market will go.

When Julie Averett was first hired by the School of Accountancy (SOA) at the BYU Marriott School of Business as a database manager in 1996, she kept track of paper files for every single student. Twenty-four years later, the process and technology may be different, but Averett’s dedication to serving each individual SOA student remains unchanged.

Ten years after graduating from the School of Accountancy (SOA) at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Penny Lundgren waited, exhausted but exhilarated, to receive her first-place medal for the 1993 Jeep National Championship for mountain biking. Despite several literal bumps on the road, Lundgren pushed through to the finish line. Since that experience, Lundgren firmly believes that she can accomplish anything with enough practice and determination.

Ten years after serving a mission in Brazil, BYU Marriott's School of Accountancy 1989 graduate Stephen Oldham and his wife, Janae, found themselves standing on the doorstep of a family he had met and loved as a missionary. In that moment, Oldham felt the same comfortable familiarity he'd come to associate with this beautiful country—a feeling of coming home.

Earlier this year, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) announced the winners for the 2020–21 PCAOB scholarships. Two students from the School of Accountancy (SOA) at the BYU Marriott School of Business were among the recipients: Joy Saline, an accounting senior from Snowflake, Arizona; and Derek Smith, a second-year MAcc student from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The path to the BYU Marriott School of Business began for Rocky Wang in his home country of China, coursed across the green fields of Scotland and Ireland, and weaved through the snowy grounds of BYU–Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho, before finally bringing him to BYU campus in Provo. Now as a junior in the School of Accountancy (SOA) at BYU Marriott, Wang knows his path will lead him to further growth in his future career.

When Deloitte offered Hannah Risenmay a summer internship, she expected to complete her internship in an office located in California, not sitting on her couch in Washington. So, when her internship moved online as a result of COVID-19 restrictions, she wasn't sure what to expect. However, Risenmay was thrilled to discover that despite being hundreds of miles away from company headquarters, her supervisor still gave her important responsibilities and ensured that she felt connected with their team.

When COVID-19 struck, one of the first thoughts for BYU Marriott alum Sterling Nielsen had involved the welfare of his employees. As the CEO of Mountain America Credit Union, he oversees employees with a variety of responsibilities, and he wanted to guarantee that they could keep their jobs.

If you ever see a white car with a Utah license plate that reads BRIGM, you are likely driving behind Lee Bowen, a BYU Marriott School of Accountancy (SOA) alumni and die-hard BYU Cougar fan from Herriman, UT. Bowen’s time at BYU not only strengthened a love of Cougar sports, his experiences in the SOA also sparked a lifelong desire to strive for excellence.  

David Wood, Andersen Fellow and professor of accounting at the BYU Marriott School of Business School of Accountancy, and his team of colleagues, recently received the distinguished Innovation in Accounting Award from the American Accounting Association (AAA).

Doug Prawitt, director of the School of Accountancy at the BYU Marriott School of Business, was recently awarded the prestigious KPMG Mentoring Award from the American Accounting Association (AAA).

To date, Congress has authorized roughly $3 trillion in COVID-19 relief assistance— the largest relief package in history. With more COVID relief money on the way, a new study led by two Brigham Young University business professors finds these newly available funds led to a significant surge in health sector lobbying activity, especially within the pharmaceutical industry.

Whether she's teaching in the classroom or conducting her own research, Abigail Allen, an assistant professor in BYU Marriott's School of Accountancy (SOA), strives to ask challenging questions that don't take the status-quo accounting rules for granted.

On 17 April 2020, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) announced the winners of the 2019 Elijah Watt Sells Award. This award is given to individuals who scored above an average of 95.5 across all four sections of the CPA exam. This year, four BYU Marriott School of Accountancy graduates qualified for the award.