| |
||
| January, 2004 | The
Monthly Newspaper of the NYSSCPA |
Vol.
7, No. 1 |
Rochester Chapter Hosts World of Accounting Field Trip
By Harry Howe, Rochester Chapter Treasurer
On Dec. 5 the Rochester Chapter hosted a field trip to the Bausch and Lomb building and the offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers for the benefit of Monroe County high school students who had expressed an interest in finding out more about careers in accounting.
Approximately 70 students and many high school teachers from districts that included Brockport, Churchville-Chili, Greece-Olympia, Hilton, Mendon, Pittsford, Rochester’s East High, Rush-Henrietta, Webster and West Irondequoit attended the program, which ran from 9:00 in the morning until 1:00 p.m.
In addition to four short presentations, the program provided many opportunities for students to talk informally with accounting professionals, NYSSCPA members, college students and professors. After assembling in the second floor training room at the Bausch and Lomb building in downtown Rochester, the students heard speakers, including Christopher Hasenauer, Director of Finance, PaeTec Communications; Michelle Cohen, Audit Manager, Rotenberg & Co. LLP; Greg Parrinello, Tax Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and James Eyerman, Director of Internal Audit, Bausch & Lomb.
Each one of these CPAs talked about the challenges and rewards of a career in accounting, stressed the wide range of opportunities and career tracks available to accounting majors and conveyed a vivid sense of how rewarding and satisfying they found their jobs.
After the talks and a Q&A session, PwC staff took all the students on a tour of the Rochester office and answered questions about “what accountants do all day.” After an NYSSCPA-sponsored sandwich and salad lunch, Chapter President Bill Dresnack fielded several questions about the CPA exam and a panel of college students from the Rochester Institute of Technology, SUNY-Brockport and SUNY-Geneseo fielded questions on topics that ranged from what is the best minor to pursue with an accounting major to whether or not students had time to play a sport while completing a very demanding course of study.
Everyone who participated in the event agreed that it went off smoothly and provided a great deal of value to all participants. The chapter plans to have similar events in the future.
Trusted Professional readers who are interested in developing similar programs for their chapters are encouraged to contact Steve Morse, Rochester Chapter vice president (smorse@netacc.net) or Harry Howe, Rochester Chapter treasurer (howeh@geneseo.edu), who both helped to organize the event. The chapter has prepared a short PowerPoint file, including pictures, and would be happy to share it.
