Celebrating a Century

When Jennifer Maroney joined BYU Marriott’s School of Accountancy (SOA) in 2014 as the SOA alumni director, one of her primary goals for her new position featured an unusual objective: to put together what she calls “the party of the century” for the school’s upcoming centennial anniversary.

“I knew we needed an extraordinary event to celebrate the SOA’s 100th anniversary,” she says. “It had to be unlike anything any BYU department had ever done for their alumni.”

Maroney’s vision was realized with the SOA Centennial Celebration, held between October 2021 and November 2022. Festivities comprised 18 events nationwide, featured a four-day central event in Provo, and brought together alumni, faculty, and friends of the SOA to celebrate the school’s achievements.

“Since its inception a century ago, the School of Accountancy has grown into an award-winning, top-three-in-the-nation accountancy program with about 15,000 living alumni around the country,” says Doug Prawitt, director of the School of Accountancy and the LeRay McAllister/Deloitte Foundation Distinguished Professor. “We put together a world-class centennial celebration as a way to both honor all those who built the SOA into what it is today and rekindle our connection with alumni in a more personal way.”

Prawitt continues, “Our success depends in no small degree on the connection and commitment of our alumni. We want to show them how much we appreciate them, their generosity in giving back, and the many ways in which they represent and reflect goodness back on BYU, BYU Marriott, and the SOA.”

Maroney predicts that the celebration’s ripple effects will influence the SOA, its students, and its alumni for years to come. But organizing an event of such significance did not come without challenges. Maroney’s team and numerous SOA alumni worked diligently and cohesively to bring the celebration together in the face of unforeseen obstacles and sometimes seemingly impossible odds.

A Legacy Worth Celebrating

A year after Maroney joined BYU Marriott, associate professor of accountancy and Rachel Martin Fellow Melissa Lewis-Western taught in the junior core as a visiting professor. Her experience helped her decide to make the Tanner Building her permanent home, in large part because of the love she felt from her students.

“I’d only been a member of the Church for maybe two years, and that fall was my first experience going to the temple,” Lewis-Western says. She shared her preparation for that event with her students during class and was surprised by their response.

“To have the students not only help me to learn and teach but also to be super excited to be part of that journey with me made me think, ‘This is fantastic. You can be more than a teacher—you can bring your whole self to the classroom, and we can really talk about the most important things in life and support each other,’” she says.

Lewis-Western’s experience is just one example of how the SOA embodies unity, one of the four themes of the SOA Centennial Celebration: service, unity, achievement, and legacy. Those four themes, a video interview in which Lewis-Western shares her story, and many other components of the celebration were selected and compiled by Maroney’s planning team, a tight-knit group made up of Maroney, alumni events coordinator Lizzy Farnsworth, and five student-intern cohorts that worked on the project over a period of four years.

“One thing I’m particularly proud of is that almost every aspect of the SOA Centennial Celebration has been conceived of and implemented by students,” Maroney says. “Everything from the website design to the social media content has been student led. That speaks volumes about the caliber of students who study at and graduate from BYU.”

The 20 student interns also assisted with planning events, building the SOA Centennial Celebration website (soa100.byu.edu), and compiling the SOA’s centennial history book, BYU School of Accountancy: 100 Years of Service, Unity, Achievement, and Legacy (available online at the BYU Store).

“This celebration really is for the SOA community, including alumni, friends, faculty and staff, and current and future students,” says Farnsworth, who interned with Maroney before joining the alumni office as events coordinator. “We’re doing it for them. It comes from a place of love, and we just want people to enjoy it.”

Coast-to-Coast Commemoration

When Maroney began her work as incoming alumni director, she had made a goal to prepare for emergencies. “I felt this need to build a strong alumni network that would withstand anything,” she recalls. “We needed to get ready for a catastrophe—just in case.”

In early 2020, Maroney and her team were finalizing plans for the centennial celebrations—set to begin only a few months later—when the catastrophe Maroney had been presciently preparing for became a reality. “I remember years earlier telling Jeff Wilks [EY Professor and former SOA director] that we needed to be prepared in case something happened that would impact a large number of our alumni,” she says. “I didn’t realize that ‘something’ was going to be a pandemic.”

At first, Maroney waited for her phone to buzz. As unemployment rates skyrocketed, she expected the calls and emails to come flooding in from SOA alumni, asking for help and support in finding new employment—but the flood never came.

“I thought, ‘There’s no way,’” she says. “I couldn’t believe it, but as far as I know, not one of our alumni lost their jobs during the pandemic. The fact that they got through the pandemic with flying colors speaks to the quality of education they received at the School of Accountancy.”

But that relief was soon replaced by the unexpected difficulties presented to the SOA Centennial Celebration team. Between COVID-19 restrictions and other issues, including those related to the conflict in Ukraine, every activity had to be postponed for at least a year, and many cities’ events had to be adjusted.

Helping with these adjustments and myriad other planning responsibilities were the celebration’s city ambassadors—two SOA alumni from each location who graciously dedicated time and effort to bringing each event to life.

Eric Marler, a 1983 alumnus and city ambassador for San Diego, remembers making significant alterations to what was supposed to be a day at a San Diego Padres game. “The major league baseball lockout started and showed no signs of ending in time for the season,” Marler says, referring to the historic work stoppage that ended all major league activity from December 2021 to March 2022. “We opted to have a barbecue and play bocce ball at a park instead. We ended up having a great event, even though our original plans changed completely.”

The San Diego event wasn’t the only one to evolve into a more intimate, individual-focused affair that allowed for greater alumni connection. In Houston and Phoenix, alumni oversaw grills and griddles at parks while chatting with old and new friends. Other events saw alumni watching NBA games courtside at the Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City and the Chase Center in San Francisco, exploring the Denver Botanic Gardens, enjoying beach time at Washington Lake, and attending a Hollywood Bowl concert.

“The highlight of our event for me was the beautiful weather—you never know what you’re going to get in Dallas—and watching everyone socialize,” says Jen Hinze, city ambassador from Dallas. She and her husband, Rod Hinze, a fellow 2001 alum, planned the event. “Being able to gather with others who share our same passion and have memories of a wonderful BYU experience was such a treat.”

Overcoming—Together

The crowning gathering was an event in Provo, which coincided with Provo City’s Freedom Festival celebration. Attendees participated in several events over a four-day period, including a kickoff event, a golf tournament, family intramurals, a professional development conference, a family accounting race, a tailgate party, and a patriotic service. The kickoff event included a concert featuring 2011 alumnus Dave Crosby and his daughter Claire of YouTube and The Voice fame along with world-renowned musical group the Piano Guys.

Like many other city events before it, the Provo event had its fair share of challenges, including a surprise summer thunderstorm that threatened to derail the kickoff celebration. But even this challenge had its bright side: while alumni and their families took shelter and waited for the downpour to cease and the show to go on—which it eventually did—alumni made the best of the situation by networking and making connections.

None of the events would have been possible, Maroney shares, without the help of each city ambassador. “I am so grateful for each ambassador’s dedication to making this celebration a reality,” she says. And the city ambassadors are similarly grateful for Maroney’s help in navigating obstacles. “Jenn’s enthusiasm has been essential during the planning phase. I’ve appreciated how accessible she’s been,” says Paige Goepfert, a 2004 alumna and Chicago city ambassador.

“The preparation for this event has been like any true BYU experience,” says 2000 alum Greg Headlee, comparing his service as a Las Vegas city ambassador to the challenging SOA classes he took as a student. “It seems daunting at first, but once you start digging in and asking for help from other alumni, the plan seems to fall into place. Others are so willing to help out and rally around the cause, which only speaks to how the School of Accountancy has truly blessed each of our lives.”

Looking Back, Looking Forward

At almost every one of the 18 SOA Centennial Celebration events, alumni could be found riffling through the pages of junior core yearbooks dating back into the 1960s.

“Finding photos of themselves and their friends in the books was so exciting for our alumni,” says Farnsworth. “It gave them a chance to remember their memories of the SOA, the impact it had on them, and the impact they can have on future generations of students.”

Maroney and her team hope that alumni took the time to reflect on the SOA’s past and consider its future as part of their SOA Centennial Celebration experience.

“One of the best parts of these events has been seeing alumni revive previous connections and initiate new ones,” Maroney says. “We hope that the long-term impact of this yearlong celebration is greater networking and a stronger alumni community, because our alumni are the SOA’s greatest strength.”

To send the SOA into its next century, many alumni have generously contributed to the SOA’s 100 for 100 initiative, which encourages each alum to donate $100 to an endowment that will support SOA students for years to come. Alumni who wish to contribute may continue to do so even after the celebration is over and pass their legacies forward to future SOA students.

Headlee believes that his love of supporting BYU and the SOA stems from what the SOA has given to him: a passion for education and service. “It’s best explained by the simple phrase posted at the bottom of campus with the Tanner Building in full view: ‘Enter to learn, go forth to serve,’” he concludes. “There is something that changed in me for the better when I attended the School of Accounting.”