To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven; for those who go into auditing, there’s going to be a time to work, and a time to work so much you can hardly do anything else.

“If you’re going to be an auditor, you’re going to work long hours. You just know,” says Ashley Hevener ’10, a staff accountant at Kearney & Company in Alexandria, Virginia.

It’s one thing to hear vague references to the “busy season” when you’re studying at 91����Ƶ, Hevener says, and something else altogether to get out in the real world and experience busy season in its full 80-hour-workweek glory. Because Kearney & Co. specializes in federal agency auditing, busy season for Hevener runs from August to November, on either side of the Sept. 30 end to the federal fiscal year.

During busy season, she gets about four hours of sleep on a good night, and finishes off two cups of coffee by the time she makes it to the job site – usually a conference room provided for the audit team by whatever federal agency she’s auditing. Along with the rest of the team, she’ll be in this room from before dawn until after dusk, paging through stacks of paper and pecking away at Excel spreadsheets. They snack on M&M’s and cheeseballs, and the only time they’ll see the sun on these days is when they pause briefly to get some lunch, and another coffee. Usually at least two more coffees are on Hevener’s afternoon and evening agenda. Sometimes people put on headphones to tune out everything else. Other times, there’s usually a sort of easy camaraderie in the audit room. During busy season, members of the audit team spend plenty of time in close quarters, Hevener says, making it pretty important to keep on good terms.

“We all are nerds and find the same things funny. It’s not that hard to get along,” Hevener says.

After November 15, when audit reports are submitted to the client, things gear down a bit; during the off-season, Hevener works on other auditing projects and helps out with some of the consulting work that Kearney & Company does.

Because she grew up in rural Kansas, Harrisonburg felt like a booming metropolis when Hevener got to 91����Ƶ. After graduation, plus a year earning a master’s of accounting at James Madison University (see story on p. 22), she jumped up another order of population magnitude when her job took her to the Washington D.C. area. And because audits are typically performed on-site, travel far and wide is a regular part of the job. Last year, an auditing gig with the Administrative Office of the United States Courts took her as far as the U.S. District Courts in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Hevener spends her days sifting through numbers, but considers herself more of a problem-solver than a math person. That means from time to time, she finds problems, and one of the toughest parts of the job is breaking bad news to clients. One example: last winter, she discovered that a client who received federal grant money had failed to meet a matching funds requirement. She had to report the finding, knowing that it would mean the client would probably lose that funding for the upcoming year – news that’s particularly unwelcome in a cash-strapped place at a cash-strapped time.

Auditors can’t kick stuff under the rug, though; tough love is part of the job sometimes. On the other hand, pointing out problems that clients don’t know they have is the first step toward fixing them. Her favorite part of all of this? Knowing that those endless hours spent on an audit ends up making a positive difference.  — Andrew Jenner’04

One thing 91����Ƶ recent graduates often mention about the university’s accounting program is how they benefitted from its small size.

Ashley Hevener ’10 said the close, first-name relationship with her professors was a key part of the education that serves her well in her job as an auditor in Alexandria, Virginia, with Kearney & Company, a firm that focuses on federal agencies.

“91����Ƶ is doing a great job of preparing students to get the CPA certification,” said Jonathan Beckler ’07, now a senior accountant with Cherry Bekaert LLP in Atlanta, Georgia, echoing a sentiment expressed by many of his peers. In nearly every state, though, the boards that regulate the accounting profession have adopted policies requiring CPA aspirants to have completed 150 collegiate credit hours – basically a year of academic credit beyond the usual four undergraduate years – before they can be licensed as a CPA, even if they pass the CPA exam.

Virginia adopted such a policy in 2005, meaning that accounting majors in the years since who want to become CPAs in Virginia – and pretty much any other state – have needed to continue their education at the graduate level.

Enter the master’s of accounting program at James Madison University (JMU), just across town from 91����Ƶ. JMU has a 30-hour master’s program in accounting. 91����Ƶ and JMU have formed a strong partnership in recent years, giving 91����Ƶ accounting majors ready access to a one-year graduate program in Harrisonburg that gives them enough credit to sit for the CPA exam.

“Many of our students go to ‘finishing school’ at JMU,” says Ronald L. Stoltzfus ’75, PhD, head of the accounting program in 91����Ƶ’s business and economics department. “We give them a good foundation, but our offerings are limited. JMU has the resources to offer graduate-level training in taxes, auditing and other aspects of accounting.”

Stoltzfus does recall one honors student, Eric Yoder ‘11, who chose not to enter graduate school and is now a CPA employed by Brown, Shultz, Sheridan and Fritz in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Yoder, however, came to 91����Ƶ with 20 hours of college credit earned while in high school. This allowed him to take a few extra college courses and continue on to the CPA exam and licensing.

“All of the 91����Ƶ students we have had in our program have been successes,” said Paul Copley, PhD, director of JMU’s School of Accounting. “They have been great in the classroom, have all found jobs, and have all passed the CPA exam. This is a testament to the quality of the undergraduate program at 91����Ƶ.”

Besides his own JMU undergraduate pool, Copley says 91����Ƶ is the only university from which his master’s program actively recruits candidates; each year one or two 91����Ƶ graduates typically enroll. The master’s program at JMU allows students to specialize in taxation, audition or information systems.

While 91����Ƶ’s small program size allows students to develop close, beneficial relationships with professors, being small also keeps it off the recruiting radars of large accounting firms. The fact that dozens of employers recruit from the graduate program at JMU – a public university with an enrollment of nearly 20,000 students – makes it an even more attractive option for 91����Ƶ graduates looking for a first job opportunity.

“JMU has superior recruiting power for business and accounting students,” said Monte Glanzer ’07, who connected with his current employer, the accounting firm Hantzmon Wiebel in Charlottesville, Virginia, through one of his graduate professors at JMU.

As Copley puts it, the presence of JMU’s master’s program in Harrisonburg gives 91����Ƶ accounting students access to the “best of both worlds.” Beckler agreed, describing his undergraduate study at 91����Ƶ as a great foundation on which the master’s program at JMU laid the finishing touches that prepared him for a career in accounting.  — Andrew Jenner ’04

Ashley Hevener and Matt Ropp saw this deficiency, and wanted to link all the levels of students together. Hevener and Ropp thought a student-run Business Club would be a great way to do this.

Students network and form an idea

They began by networking with fellow students and found that many had an interest. Informative meetings brought together students from all years who wanted to be a part of this organization.

After SGA approved the petition, Economic and Business Innovators of Tomorrow (EBIT) became recognized as an official group on campus, with Professor Walt Surratt as the faculty supervisor.

The group started meeting every Thursday to organize the group and planned a large kickoff event in Common Grounds, the 91����Ƶ coffee shop. All business and economics students were invited for pizza, T-shirts and information about the organization.

Club board of directors

Members of EBIT wanted the club to always feel student-directed, so they created a Board of Directors.

The Board consists of 13 juniors and seniors who must be admitted to the Department. The Board discusses ideas that members of the club have proposed and plan main events for the club.

EBIT events

EBIT will organize and plan a variety of events that are fun and educational. The kickoff event was just the start.

The next event featured an evening with local entrepreneurs sharing their stories of business success and strife. EBIT also plans to take the whole department out for bowling after the annual picnic.

Club membership

The club currently consists of 40 members and would be happy if the whole department joined. The club wants to be an organization where business students feel excited to share their ideas and thoughts and also a place where peers can help each other with resumes and classes.

The Board wants EBIT to be a place where all year levels can come together and have a common thread.

More info

Contact the business and economics department office coordinator Patty Eckard for more info at 540-432-4150.

So realistic, in fact, that Ashley Hevener, Kaleb Wyse and Joel Kratzer were selected as the top team for their presentation made at the annual convention of Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) held Nov. 6-9, 2008, in Columbus, Ohio.

91����Ƶ junior business students (l. to r.) Joel Kratzer, Kaleb Wyse and Ashley Hevener were selected as top presenters of a business case simulation at the recent MEDA convention. Photo by Jim Bishop

All three are junior accounting and business administration majors at 91����Ƶ. Ms. Hevener is from Hutchinson, Kan.; Wyse from Wayland, Iowa; and Kratzer from Kidron, Ohio.

Two 91����Ƶ teams were among five – three from Goshen (Ind.) College – who worked on the same business scenario and recommended solutions to the problem. The other team of 91����Ƶ business students in the competition were seniors Sam Buck, Woodburn, Ore.; Matt Gehman, Parkesburg, Pa.; and Ben Moyer, Doylestown, Pa.

The business case focused on a child care facility in Toledo, Ohio, that was struggling to stay afloat fiscally while also wanting to achieve greater visibility in the community, the students explained.

The students were given the problem prior to attending the convention, but weren’t permitted to seek counsel from any 91����Ƶ business professor.

“Our challenge was to study the business, determine what the obstacles and barriers were and come up with a feasible solution to the day care facility’s dilemma,” Wyse said.

“Being accounting majors, we focused on budget issues and crunched figures,” said Ms. Hevener. “We reworked the program’s budget, adding health coverage and recommending continuing education for staff,” she added.

The students also addressed the issue of “branding” – helping the facility sharpen its image – by creating public relations materials that outlined goals and services.

Each team had about 20 minutes to make its presentation and then entertain questions from the audience. The sessions were open to everyone attending the MEDA convention.

The students believe their presentation received top honors “because the marketing materials we developed made us stand out.”

All three students felt the experience was “invaluable.”

“This exercise involved some presenting techniques that I otherwise probably wouldn’t have learned,” Hevener said.

“Presenting in this venue is different than doing so in a college classroom,” Wyse said. “The observers are already in the work world.”

“I feel like I gained a new sense of differing ways to address a business problem and work at a practical solution,” Wyse added.

Not only that, but each student received $100 for being named the top presenters.

“Competitions like these are extremely valuable by providing students with problems like those they’ll face upon leaving the university,” said Walter W. (Walt) Surratt, assistant professor of business at 91����Ƶ. “They learn the value of critical thinking and exercise the tools they have learned in the classroom environment. They also learn to present their ideas and defend their positions before people they don’t know, building confidence and self-assurance in remarkable ways,” he added.

MEDA, founded in 1953, has a dual thrust of promoting business-oriented solutions to poverty and encouraging a Christian witness in business. It is a global leader in microfinance, village-level agriculture and investment fund development, improving livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of impoverished people every year.