Student Focus: Two Accounting Seniors Selected for Prestigious KPMG Program

by Karen Klein | April 12, 2017 2:05 PM

This year marks the first time that students across the country will have an opportunity to join an elite Master’s degree program offered in part by KPMG. The Master of Accounting with Data and Analytics Program is taking just 52 students from all over the U.S. — with two of them being current Colorado State University Department of Accounting students.

With tuition, room, and board all paid by the program, these Master’s students will first attend fall classes at  The Ohio State University or Villanova University where they’ll have access to KPMG technology for their studies. Then, they’ll intern at a KPMG office for the spring semester. After the Master of Accounting program concludes in the summer, the new graduates will return to KPMG to work full-time.

Preparing for Long-term Careers

Jackson Wojciechowski and Parker Duda, the CSU Department of Accounting students who were chosen for the program, say they’re excited for the unique opportunity. Both will be at The Ohio State University for the classroom portion of the program.

“I think all the participants are going to leave the Program prepared for the data age,” says Wojciechowski. “We will be given incredible resources from the universities, KPMG, and each other.” He notes that in Instructor Beth Dixon’s class, he was assigned to read an article about how automation is affecting the accounting profession.

He says the article initially made him a bit concerned about his future job security. But when he learned about the KPMG opportunity, he says, “I felt confident that this would be a way to stay ahead of the curve, and stay competitive among my peers. Additionally, I think adding data and analytics into the auditing profession opens the opportunity to see much safer and better structured capital markets.” He believes the added training will put him at the forefront of the industry.

 

Duda agrees, saying he anticipates the program will help him better serve his future clients, and his future KPMG colleagues. “With the business world continuously integrating the technology industry,” he says, “the opportunity to become accustomed with new data tools and software is going to give me the base I need in order to successfully grow in the accounting field.”

Duda says he wasn’t originally sure that he wanted to go on to any graduate studies, but the KPMG Master of Accounting program swayed him. “What really sold me was the idea of getting an extra level of preparation before starting to work full time,” he says. “With KPMG providing so many resources for us students to acquire additional knowledge and experience, I knew that this program would be extremely beneficial.”

 

Expanding on CSU Training

Wojciechowski and Duda both say they look forward to taking their CSU training to the next level as they complete preparations to work at KPMG. “At CSU, there are so many opportunities to become involved in various programs, and attain leadership positions,” says Duda, who notes that his leadership roles with the tennis club and sport clubs likely helped give him an edge when he applied for the KPMG program.

“Additionally,” Duda says, “the College of Business, and more specifically, the accounting professors, provided all the support I needed to be successful in my studies. The accounting professors show genuine interest in each student and attribute to the confidence we need in order to progress.”

Wojciechowski echoes the sentiment saying, “I really would like to thank the College of Business, the Accounting Program at CSU, and of course, KPMG for guiding me and helping direct me to be the best version of myself. I’m extremely excited for the future, and feel unbelievably thankful that KPMG has already invested so much of their time and resources to my future.”

Please join us in congratulating them on being part of the inaugural class of the KPMG Master of Accounting with Data and Analytics Program – and wishing  both of the them much success as they take this next step, after they graduate this May.

 

Source URL: https://source.colostate.edu/student-focus-two-accounting-seniors-selected-prestigious-kpmg-program/

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