Poole College’s Student Team Wins First Place in National AICPA Accounting Competition

Four students in the North Carolina State University Poole College of Management’s undergraduate accounting program won first place in the 2011 AICPA Accounting Competition, held in Washington, D.C. on December 16. Second place went to a team from Iowa State University and third place, to a team from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Poole College’s winning team members are Alan Perry, team captain; Seanna Robey; Brian Jones; and Amanda Dew. Dr. Eileen Taylor is their faculty advisor.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accounting (AICPA) flew the team members and their advisors to Washington for the final portion of the competition which began on August 29 when more than 200 teams began working on their solutions to the 2011 case dealing with accounting fraud and forensics.

On Friday, each team gave a 10-minute presentation, followed by five to seven minutes of questions and answers with the judges, Taylor said. “While the judges deliberated, the students brainstormed ideas for next year’s competition.”

The winners were announced following a luncheon with the judges on Friday. That evening, AICPA staff took all teams to a celebration dinner and a private tour of Washington, D.C., that evening, she said.

“The judges pointed out two distinguishing characteristics about Poole College’s Wolfpack in the Black team,” Taylor said. “First, our team knew the laws about FCPA prosecutions and made certain to convince the judges (who were acting as top management), that they had to address questionable past payments to avoid future risk,” she said.

“Second, the judges said that they were not only confident in our team’s knowledge, but that our team made themselves ‘partners with management,’ meaning that the team members were people that management would like to work with. In the end, our team was able to not only exhibit technical knowledge, but they were able to sell themselves as professional service providers,” Taylor said.

As a faculty member, she said, “It was wonderful to see the students persist in their enthusiasm and dedication. This competition had many stages – three rounds – that required students to submit two papers, a video presentation, and a live presentation. They developed great chemistry and worked well together, making sure to respect each others’ opinions and learn from each other.”

The team members “were proud to represent the Wolfpack and Poole College of Management,” Taylor added. “Also, it was a challenge to students to solve a real-world case, in which there was no one correct answer and in which they had free rein to go in any direction they wanted. It was great to see them come together to present a cohesive solution to the judging panel.”

The students themselves, she said, felt that they had accomplished something special and realized that hard work pays off. The students’ feedback will be included in a promotional video produced by AICPA to promote the 2012 competition. View the Wolfpack in the Black’s video presentation on the AICPA competition page.

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