It was a banner semester for the Accounting and Finance Department! We were fully back in person without restrictions, and our students made the most of it. Classroom energy was higher than it perhaps had ever been.

We began the semester with a welcome back BBQ, where students could mingle with professors and other students and listen to some great live music.

We also had two recruiting events: a CPA firm meet and greet targeted at juniors and seniors still looking for internships and jobs, and our premier event, Numbers Night, where about 150 reps from 50 companies met with more than 400 students.

90% of our accounting major seniors already have full-time jobs lined up, most going to large CPA firms; the remaining 10% will find jobs by graduation. Our finance students pursued a variety of opportunities, with our seniors going into corporate finance, commercial banking, financial planning, and investment banking.

Our students were successful outside of the classroom. The President of the Saint John’s student senate, Durran Thompson, is an accounting/finance major. Durran will be working as an Enterprise Risk Consultant for EY after he graduates this spring.

Sophomores Madison Kubik, Gavin Crews, Anthony Thurk, Charlie Bills, Kaylee Ringstad, and Brooke Beuning participated in the prestigious Audit Innovation Case Competition hosted by Deloitte. Fewer than 3% of 4-year colleges across American were selected for participation in this competition, with Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s being the only private college in the state of Minnesota to participate.

Football Standout Michael Wozniak

We have a lot of students who flourish in athletics, with these being just a few examples:

• Senior Michael Wozniak was defensive player-of-the-year in our conference, an All-American, a semifinalist for the Gagliardi trophy, and a finalist for the Campbell Trophy. He has an internship lined up with a prestigious private equity firm in San Francisco and a full-time job lined up with Northborne Partners in investment banking.
• Junior Abby Willenbring was named All-Region in soccer and an Academic All-American. She has an internship lined up with PWC in audit.
• Junior Nate Loxtercamp was the conference individual golf champion and led the Johnnies to the conference title. He also has an internship lined up with PWC in audit.
• Sophomore Sophia Jonas was a two-time winner of the conference offensive player of the week award in basketball. She will interview with the big accounting firms this spring.
• Senior Lloyd Young received All-American honors in cross country. He has a job lined up with PWC in tax.

Academic All-American Abby Willenbring

Outside of sports, many of our students participated in the arts, including the Wind Ensemble, Opera Workshop, and our various choirs. Many of our students are also leaders in student clubs.

We are also planning to launch a standalone finance major in partnership with our Economics and Math departments. Within this major, students could choose between business finance, financial economics, and mathematical finance concentrations. The proposed major is currently under review by our school, and we hope to receive approval in the spring of 2023.

Finally, we received a generous $50,000 donation to redo one of our classrooms with updated technology and furnishings.

We have a lot of pride. We sold (at cost) over 300 of our popular ACCOUNTING t-shirts and hoodies and added a FINANCE option this year!

The spring should be exciting. We will hold our CPA² recruiting event in February, scholarship banquet and Sigma Beta Delta induction ceremony in April, and senior farewell BBQ with the profs prior to graduation. We will have some fun social events and activities, such as our first ever “bags” tournament with our department’s custom bags boards, as well as Superbowl and NCAA March Madness pools.

It is a great time to be a part of the Accounting and Finance Department!