Central Illinois high school accounting students converged on Illinois State University’s State Farm Hall of Business on Friday for the High School Accounting Challenge. Event winners may soon return to campus as College of Business students.
Thirty-six four-person teams from 11 area high schools participated in Friday’s competition. Seven individuals won scholarships that will be applied toward their college tuition when they enroll and declare as accounting majors at Illinois State.
Normal Community High School student Akash Anbu claimed first prize in the advanced accounting competition. Though he plans to pursue a career in medicine, his performance Friday gave him pause to reconsider his future.
“I’m starting to consider accounting now as well,” Anbu said, clutching his first-place certificate. “This is a big achievement, so I’m wondering if I should maybe consider accounting or business.”
After registration, breakfast, and a brief introduction, the High School Accounting Challenge started with a written exam on accounting fundamentals, including terminology, accounting cycle, journal entries, depreciation, inventory, and receivables; advanced accounting students were additionally tested on managerial accounting concepts such as break-even analysis, costing, and budgeting. While students took the test, their accounting teachers participated in a coaches clinic.
“It’s fun to come back,” said business teacher Dan Pouk ’99, M.S. ’06, who brought three teams from Streator Township High School to compete Friday. “There are math competitions and science competitions, so it’s nice to have a business competition, too.”
Team-building activities and lunch followed before the awards presentation. A panel session featuring Illinois State accounting students was moved to the end of the day as all but one competing school opted for an early departure due to deteriorating weather conditions. The school that remained for the panel just happened to be the former high school of panelist Jessica Laughlin.
“It was a cool experience to get to talk with them and imagine myself four years ago in their position,” said Laughlin, a Normal Community graduate. “I just wanted to guide them the way I wish someone had done for me.”
Scholarship prizes totaling $7,000 were awarded at the competition, thanks to event sponsors State Farm and Forvis. The top performing teams took home trophies. So did the squad with the best team name, as determined by Illinois State accounting student volunteers.
Fun activities were sprinkled in throughout the day. They included a guessing game where student participants guessed the number of objects in jars. Students with the closest predictions took home the jars, which contained items like pennies, Jolly Ranchers, and Girl Scout cookies. A four-way tie on a jar containing the latter depleted the personal inventory of Thin Mints of Instructional Assistant Professor Ed Seipp, who sent a helper to his office to retrieve three boxes each for the winners.
Seipp led the charge in organizing Illinois State’s inaugural event, along with associate professors Joe Johnston and Madeline Trimble, Instructional Assistant Professor Liesel Mitchell, and Chair and Professor of Accounting Deborah Seifert. Additional support was provided by College of Business student and faculty volunteers.
“I did most of the communicating with the schools and they all seemed really excited about it. The comments were all, ‘We’re really looking forward to it,’ and ‘The kids have been talking about it for weeks,’” Seipp said. “For some of them, it’s just a day away from school, but some of these kids are really interested in it, and there aren’t really many events like this where accounting students can get recognized.”
Seifert, the Department of Accounting chair, said the College of Business was happy to host talented accounting students for the competition.
“We have a really good accounting program, a high CPA (certified public accountant) pass rate, undergraduate and master’s programs in accounting and business information systems, and award-winning students,” she said. “Our excellent faculty is from all over the world, and we like prospective students having the opportunity to meet them. We have a lot to offer here.”
