{"id":22464,"date":"2022-11-28T09:54:34","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T14:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/?p=22464"},"modified":"2022-11-28T09:54:36","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T14:54:36","slug":"giving-back-to-a-world-class-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/2022\/11\/28\/giving-back-to-a-world-class-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving Back to a World-Class Program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Lea Hart<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Pappas had a plan heading into college: two years at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, followed by two more years at North Carolina State University to achieve an engineering degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he discovered engineering wasn\u2019t the right fit fairly early in his time at UNC-Asheville, and instead found a knack for accounting through some courses he took during his time there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMath has always clicked for me,\u201d Pappas says, looking back. \u201cI\u2019m a problem solver so accounting automatically resonated with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What didn\u2019t change, however, was his decision to transfer to NC State. Pappas enrolled in the Poole College of Management, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Business Management in 2010 and then went on to earn his Master of Accounting (MAC) degree in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat time at NC State gave me leadership experience and shaped me as a person,\u201d Pappas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an undergraduate, he was president of Alpha Kappa Psi, a co-ed professional business fraternity, and then went on to lead the MAC Organization as president during his time in the MAC Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose experiences truly gave me the leadership skills and strengthened my soft skills,\u201d he said. \u201cI got to know my professors and my classmates a lot better \u2013 I will always be grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also there, before he even graduated, that Pappas started thinking about giving back. As president of the MAC Organization, he and some of his fellow board members revived a fundraising campaign, \u201cGive Back to the MAC,\u201d soliciting pledges from their MAC classmates that totaled more than $14,000 to be donated to the MAC Program. It\u2019s something Pappas looks back on with pride.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cThe goal was to help students get in the habit of giving back to the program that gave us so much.”<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe goal was to help students get in the habit of giving back to the program that gave us so much,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the years since, Pappas calls his career a bit of a whirlwind. He interned at Dixon Hughes Goodman (DHG) and returned there to take a full-time role in public accounting following graduation. That experience provided a solid foundation in different areas of taxation. He remained there until he was approached by a family friend, and fellow member of the Wolfpack, in 2015 with an opportunity to move into corporate accounting at Patheon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe big sell for me was the focus on tax provisions for a company that was looking to go public,\u201d he said. \u201cI gained really great experience there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patheon went public and was later bought out, forcing Pappas to move on, but he landed on his feet as a senior tax analyst with Martin Marietta. He spent two years there until an opportunity arose with Epic Games, where Pappas said he had the unique opportunity to help start a tax department from scratch within the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was able to get even more experience with management and tax provisions, not just domestic, but also global tax,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like it really allowed me to propel my career and I\u2019m learning new things every day with an innovative company.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little over a decade since he graduated the MAC Program, Pappas can easily make the connections between his career success today and the foundation he received while at Poole College.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cFrom the fundamentals of accounting to instilling a good work ethic; along with the leadership experience I received leading those two organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has helped me, and continues to help me in my career,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom the fundamentals of accounting to instilling a good work ethic; along with the leadership experience I received leading those two organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He credits the people he met along the way while at Poole College, as well. In particular, Scott Showalter, director of the MAC Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are a lot of professors, peers and other people that were impactful, too many to talk about in this article; Scott Showalter was one person that had a very big impact on me,\u201d Pappas said. \u201cThe practical, real-world experience that I learned from him, I apply now all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cThere are a lot of professors, peers and other people that were impactful, too many to talk about in this article; Scott Showalter was one person that had a very big impact on me. The practical, real-world experience that I learned from him, I apply now all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think too, just his way of caring for students, always being there, and also challenging us \u2013 I really appreciated that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of those things together are why NC State and Poole College are still close to Pappas\u2019s heart today. He\u2019s a long-time member of the Wolfpack Club and recently brought his young daughter to experience her first football game. He\u2019s had opportunities to participate on campus as well, through recruiting and in offering his input as a young alumnus to the future direction of MAC Program initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pappas is currently working remotely in Virginia and, though that makes it tougher to get back to campus, he and his wife have also chosen to lend their financial support to the MAC Program as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven if I can\u2019t be as involved in-person as I\u2019d like, making sure the school has funds to reach their mission and better students\u2019 lives is important to us,\u201d Pappas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The desire to give back also comes from his own experiences. Pappas paid his way through school and was fortunate to receive some scholarship support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComing out of school and being in a situation where I had a job right away, I was able to pay off my student loans very rapidly, and that was thanks to the foundation and support I\u2019d received from NC State,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s always been important to me to give back to the College of Management and the MAC Program \u2013 I think of future students coming in, who may be similar to me, and I want to help give them the same opportunities that I had.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pappas said he hopes his support can help the MAC Program continue to be one of the best in the country. The accounting profession as a whole is struggling with a decline in numbers of students entering the profession and he thinks supporting a world-class MAC Program means the program can inspire more future accountants.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cI encourage my fellow Wolfpack, who are able to do so, to help provide financial support or donate their advisory time to the MAC Program. And lastly, go Pack!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope we can help students realize their potential and inspire others to come into our great profession,\u201d Pappas said. \u201cI encourage my fellow Wolfpack, who are able to do so, to help provide financial support or donate their advisory time to the MAC Program. And lastly, go Pack!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To join George Pappas in supporting the accounting department, please <\/em>contact<\/em><\/a> the Development and External Relations team.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n

By Lea Hart<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Pappas had a plan heading into college: two years at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, followed by two more years at North Carolina State University to achieve an engineering degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he discovered engineering wasn\u2019t the right fit fairly early in his time at UNC-Asheville, and instead found a knack for accounting through some courses he took during his time there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMath has always clicked for me,\u201d Pappas says, looking back. \u201cI\u2019m a problem solver so accounting automatically resonated with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What didn\u2019t change, however, was his decision to transfer to NC State. Pappas enrolled in the Poole College of Management, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Business Management in 2010 and then went on to earn his Master of Accounting (MAC) degree in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat time at NC State gave me leadership experience and shaped me as a person,\u201d Pappas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an undergraduate, he was president of Alpha Kappa Psi, a co-ed professional business fraternity, and then went on to lead the MAC Organization as president during his time in the MAC Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose experiences truly gave me the leadership skills and strengthened my soft skills,\u201d he said. \u201cI got to know my professors and my classmates a lot better \u2013 I will always be grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also there, before he even graduated, that Pappas started thinking about giving back. As president of the MAC Organization, he and some of his fellow board members revived a fundraising campaign, \u201cGive Back to the MAC,\u201d soliciting pledges from their MAC classmates that totaled more than $14,000 to be donated to the MAC Program. It\u2019s something Pappas looks back on with pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal was to help students get in the habit of giving back to the program that gave us so much.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe goal was to help students get in the habit of giving back to the program that gave us so much,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the years since, Pappas calls his career a bit of a whirlwind. He interned at Dixon Hughes Goodman (DHG) and returned there to take a full-time role in public accounting following graduation. That experience provided a solid foundation in different areas of taxation. He remained there until he was approached by a family friend, and fellow member of the Wolfpack, in 2015 with an opportunity to move into corporate accounting at Patheon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe big sell for me was the focus on tax provisions for a company that was looking to go public,\u201d he said. \u201cI gained really great experience there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patheon went public and was later bought out, forcing Pappas to move on, but he landed on his feet as a senior tax analyst with Martin Marietta. He spent two years there until an opportunity arose with Epic Games, where Pappas said he had the unique opportunity to help start a tax department from scratch within the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was able to get even more experience with management and tax provisions, not just domestic, but also global tax,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like it really allowed me to propel my career and I\u2019m learning new things every day with an innovative company.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little over a decade since he graduated the MAC Program, Pappas can easily make the connections between his career success today and the foundation he received while at Poole College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the fundamentals of accounting to instilling a good work ethic; along with the leadership experience I received leading those two organizations.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has helped me, and continues to help me in my career,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom the fundamentals of accounting to instilling a good work ethic; along with the leadership experience I received leading those two organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He credits the people he met along the way while at Poole College, as well. In particular, Scott Showalter, director of the MAC Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are a lot of professors, peers and other people that were impactful, too many to talk about in this article; Scott Showalter was one person that had a very big impact on me,\u201d Pappas said. \u201cThe practical, real-world experience that I learned from him, I apply now all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a lot of professors, peers and other people that were impactful, too many to talk about in this article; Scott Showalter was one person that had a very big impact on me. The practical, real-world experience that I learned from him, I apply now all the time.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think too, just his way of caring for students, always being there, and also challenging us \u2013 I really appreciated that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of those things together are why NC State and Poole College are still close to Pappas\u2019s heart today. He\u2019s a long-time member of the Wolfpack Club and recently brought his young daughter to experience her first football game. He\u2019s had opportunities to participate on campus as well, through recruiting and in offering his input as a young alumnus to the future direction of MAC Program initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pappas is currently working remotely in Virginia and, though that makes it tougher to get back to campus, he and his wife have also chosen to lend their financial support to the MAC Program as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven if I can\u2019t be as involved in-person as I\u2019d like, making sure the school has funds to reach their mission and better students\u2019 lives is important to us,\u201d Pappas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The desire to give back also comes from his own experiences. Pappas paid his way through school and was fortunate to receive some scholarship support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComing out of school and being in a situation where I had a job right away, I was able to pay off my student loans very rapidly, and that was thanks to the foundation and support I\u2019d received from NC State,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s always been important to me to give back to the College of Management and the MAC Program \u2013 I think of future students coming in, who may be similar to me, and I want to help give them the same opportunities that I had.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pappas said he hopes his support can help the MAC Program continue to be one of the best in the country. The accounting profession as a whole is struggling with a decline in numbers of students entering the profession and he thinks supporting a world-class MAC Program means the program can inspire more future accountants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I encourage my fellow Wolfpack, who are able to do so, to help provide financial support or donate their advisory time to the MAC Program. And lastly, go Pack!<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope we can help students realize their potential and inspire others to come into our great profession,\u201d Pappas said. \u201cI encourage my fellow Wolfpack, who are able to do so, to help provide financial support or donate their advisory time to the MAC Program. And lastly, go Pack!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To join George Pappas in supporting the accounting department, please <\/em>contact<\/em><\/a> the Development and External Relations team.<\/em><\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In transferring to NC State as an undergraduate, George Pappas found his passion through the Jenkins MAC Program and began giving back to the program that shaped his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":22465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":false,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"caption\":\"\",\"displayCategoryID\":398}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,398,286],"tags":[],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-22464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-giving","category-mac-program","category-newswire"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":398,"name":"Jenkins MAC Program News","slug":"mac-program","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":398,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Master of Accounting Program News","parent":1810,"count":205,"filter":"raw"},"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22466,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22464\/revisions\/22466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22464"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=22464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}