Recap: AICPA Workshop

Last Updated on Monday, 18 July 2011 17:25 Written by Carmelita O'Neil Monday, 18 July 2011 00:00

Scholarship Updates

Below is a special recap written by Nicole Lorene De Vera, one of the ISFFA Scholars selected to attend the AICPA Accounting Scholars Leadership Workshop which was held at the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club in Durham, NC.

To Dream a Possible Dream

In the Summer of 2009, my dad handed me an article from the Las Vegas Asian Journal regarding the Accounting Scholars Leadership Workshop in New York (if memory serves me right). With the promise to myself that I am going to attend it one day, I clipped the article posted it on what I call my “vision board.” However, as sophomore year and junior year happened, that vision board became out of sight and out of mind. So imagine my surprise that as I was cleaning out my dorm room before the summer hit, I found myself digging up the vision board and realizing that I am now one of the participants of the 2011 AICPA Accounting Scholars Leadership Workshop.

I am very grateful for the opportunity and privilege to be one of the ISYFA delegates for this workshop. The theme of the workshop is CPA: Dream to Reality and I cannot imagine a more apt theme given what it had brought. The AICPA Accounting Scholars Leadership Workshop served as a means to align the dream to the reality of becoming a CPA. As a rising senior accounting major at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., the reality has become daunting. The time to go past the classroom full time is drawing near and the task has seemed greater than ever. Nonetheless, the leadership workshop has opened my eyes that the reality is something exciting, something wonderful, something that is worth being faced head on. The speakers, panel discussions and the case study presentation all emphasized the creation of the CPA dream to reality. Speakers and panelists told their dream-to-reality stories and gave advice as to how to go about this dream and make it happen. Moreover, where they are in their careers and lives at the moment shows that success that was only once a dream can actually happen and will happen to those who strive to do so.

At the workshop, besides the talks, panel discussions and the case study, I had the chance to meet 79 other hopefuls, notable mentors and inspirational people. It reminded me that I am not alone in pursuing and making this dream to a reality. There are other students like me who are trying to do what I am attempting to pursue and in that goal, we have a whole network of support that are willing to give us advice and guide us along the way. They are living examples of what those who persevere and work hard can do, especially in the realm of public accounting. There is a whole world of opportunities that we can tap into and all we need to do is go for it.

The AICPA Accounting Scholars Leadership Workshop is an opportunity not only to network but to remember and strengthen the dream. It is a motivating experience that every minority accounting student should go for. As I enter my senior year as an accounting major, I am more inspired than ever to make the CPA dream happen. The dream starts from me and as long as I hold on to it and strive to make it into a reality it will be possible, especially with the knowledge that there are other people cheering me on and willing to help me along the way.

Nicole Lorene De Vera is a senior from The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. She is an Accounting major and Spanish minor. Nicole is also the Culture Co-Chair of CUA's Filipino Organization of Catholic University Students (F.O.C.U.S.).