With a competitive pass rate and record scores, BYU’s student chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) brought home the elite Clark Johnson Award and a $5,000 grant.
The club’s efforts yielded three of the world’s top ten scores on the CMA, a grueling test for certification in the fields of accounting and finance. Their efforts also resulted in a CMA passing average roughly 30 percent higher than the international average.
“The School of Accountancy is very proud of the IMA Club and its accomplishments in the few short years since it was founded,” says Jeff Wilks, director of the BYU School of Accountancy. “In many ways, this club has become the benchmark for all IMA clubs across the country, and we owe this to our dedicated student leaders and outstanding faculty advisors."
The IMA, a professional organization for management accounting, gives the Clark Johnson Award to a student chapter that demonstrates its focus on student needs, leadership, innovation, organizational development, and interdependent partnerships.
To qualify for the award, club leadership submitted a write-up of the club’s goals, agenda, and results for the year that illustrated how the chapter exemplified the virtues the IMA values. BYU’s report highlighted the club’s efforts to increase BYU’s already excellent CMA passing rates, including creating a CMA practice test, making books and other study materials more readily available for students, and setting up study groups.
The club also prepares students for their careers and connects them with potential job opportunities. Members tour local companies and speak to executives on site, participate in intimate recruiter brunches and larger recruiter events, and attend workshops on interviews and résumés.
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Writer: Madeleine Lewis Smith