Accountancy News 

When Carmela Bristain was 15 years old, she graduated from high school, which was normal in her home country of the Philippines. At such a young age, she wasn't sure what to study in college, but her mother, who noticed Bristain's knack for logic-based subjects such as math, suggested she pursue accounting. Bristain followed her mother's advice, which eventually led her to the Cardon International Sponsorship from the Whitmore Global Business Center at the BYU Marriott School of Business.

In a recent study, BYU Marriott professor Tim Seidel and colleagues at other universities found that those who worked at Arthur Andersen during the Enron scandal may be better off for the experience.

Troy K. Lewis, an associate teaching professor in the School of Accountancy at the BYU Marriott School of Business, recently received the 2021 Arthur J. Dixon Memorial Award in honor of his outstanding work as a certified public accountant (CPA) in the area of taxation.

During the fall 2021 semester, the global supply chain management program at the BYU Marriott School of Business recognized accounting alum Brian Hancock with the Global Supply Chain Excellence Award. Members of the BYU Marriott Global Supply Chain Advisory Board, students, and Hancock’s family gathered at BYU’s Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center to recognize Hancock’s achievements as a successful C-suite executive, leader in supply chain management, and corporate mentor.

Brian Spilker landed his dream job when he accepted an assistant professor position in the School of Accountancy at the BYU Marriott School of Business in 1993. A basketball enthusiast, he likes to joke that "other than playing point guard for the Utah Jazz, I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing for a career."

When Patricia Wilson thinks about her hometown in Cali, Colombia, she remembers the fruit: fresh mangoes, ripe bananas pulled directly off the trees, and her favorite—maracujá—also known as passion fruit. While Wilson loved many aspects of Cali, she left in 1993 and moved to Provo to pursue her college education. Two decades later, she returned to BYU as an employee, where she now works as the business manager for the School of Accountancy (SOA) at the BYU Marriott School of Business.

During summer 2021, an estimated 75,000 accounting graduates across the United States took a 16-hour exam to become a licensed certified public accountant (CPA). The CPA exam is a rigorous test, with passing rates ranging from 46 to 60 percent. Two accounting alumni from the BYU Marriott School of Business, Kathrine Jensen and Jared Nielsen, not only passed the CPA exam but aced all four sections and received one of the most prestigious recognitions in accounting: the Elijah Watt Sells Award. 

Gamma Alpha, the BYU Marriott School of Business chapter of Beta Alpha Psi was recently recognized internationally by the Beta Alpha Psi Board of Directors as a Superior Chapter.

The Brigham Young University Marriott School of Business welcomes nine new professors this fall.

As a professor at the School of Accountancy at BYU Marriott, Worsham hopes to instill the same passion he feels for accounting within his own students.

Although Emily Gertsch's career path eventually led her to the medical field, the BYU Marriott alum still applies her accounting skills from the School of Accountancy (SOA) to her current position as a medical director for F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG.

Whether he’s teaching students in a classroom or coaching his players from the sidelines of a volleyball court, BYU Marriott School of Business accounting alum RJ Mattei loves learning and teaching in many forms.

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.