Students win scholarships, prizes at SIU’s 24th annual Accounting Challenge

March 25, 2022

Learners get scholarships, prizes at SIU’s 24th once-a-year Accounting Problem

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Unwell. — Extra than 200 superior college learners from across the area vied for school scholarships, trophies and other prizes at Southern Illinois College Carbondale’s 24th yearly Accounting Obstacle.

The Faculty of Accountancy in the College or university of Enterprise and Analytics sponsored the during which individuals analyzed their expertise in the two individual and team competitions on March 18. 

The challenge tested the accounting know-how and competencies as properly as the issue-fixing know-how of the contributors who arrived from superior educational institutions all about the region. 

Vice Chancellor Wendell Williams, Bridgette Sargent, assistant dean for the college or university, and Marcus Odom, interim director of the accountancy faculty and Deloitte & Touche School Fellow, welcomed the enthusiastic. Chancellor Austin Lane stopped by and spoke to the contributors as properly.

Accounting understanding earns scholarships and trophies

The occasion commenced with the students competing in person composed accounting quizzes. The contributors in every single division who attained the best scores gained certificates and scholarships worthy of up to $500 if they go to SIU and main in accounting. The top rated teams claimed trophies, alongside with particular person trophies for workforce associates. In addition, all individuals received special event T-shirts. When the competitors wrapped up, the scores were tallied and a full of up to $9,250 in scholarships was awarded. 

Leading personal honors

The individual contest winners mentioned by occasion, school, along with their likely scholarship earnings, have been:

Accounting I – Significant College

• 1st spot, $500 – (tie) Kaden Vollmer and Brandy Halloran, each of O’Fallon Township Higher College Layne Jones, Pinckneyville Group Substantial College Morgan Heil, Hamilton County High School Jasmine Chau, Flora High College and Layton Dillard, Massac County Large University.
• Second place, $300 – (tie) Carson Burkett, Woodlawn Higher School Raelyn Dearing, Centralia High School Sarah Restoff, James Davis, and Molly Doerflein, all of Pinckneyville Neighborhood Superior College Mahek Desai, Flora Superior School Reed McCuan, Massac County Substantial College and Janaye Cosby, O’Fallon Township Large Faculty.
• Third put, $250 – (tie) William Graham, Centralia Substantial University Hannah Williams, O’Fallon Township High College Vaden Szczepanski, Pinckneyville Community Large College and Isaac Wrzesinski, Nashville Local community Large College.

Advanced Accounting (Accounting II) – High School

• To start with spot, $500 – (tie) Mitchell Carpizo, O’Fallon Township Substantial School Abby Allen and Ben Watson, both of those of Centralia Superior University.
• Next place, $300 – (tie) Tyler O’Neill, Centralia High School and Katie Bach, Vernon Township High University.
• Third spot, $250 – (tie) Zada Wilkey, Vernon Township Superior School Vincent Beatty, Nashville Group Substantial College and Stevie Miller, O’Fallon Township Higher University.

Teams confronted artistic challenges

The college students then paired up for the team portion of the competition through which they confronted 3 one of a kind problems. Larry Busch, an emeritus SIU University of Artwork and Layout faculty member, conceived 1 of the troubles though the other two were concocted by current SIU accounting college students.

The initially endeavor was to produce the tallest absolutely free-standing tower possible, working with just a 20 sheets of copy paper, a paper plate, a four-foot strip of masking tape and scissors. Details have been awarded based on the tower’s peak. The tallest calculated an awesome 96 inches.

Future came a Kahoot! quiz with participants answering accounting issues this sort of as “What is the cost of merchandise marketed equation?” and entertaining pop culture issues like “Put these applications in get from newest to oldest: Reddit, Roblox, Facetime, Kik and Messenger.” They experienced just 30 seconds to respond.

The third problem was a revenue get necessitating every single workforce member to scoop cash into a paper plate working with a spatula when blindfolded. Every single group experienced the identical mixture of revenue available but there were a few of twists as of the income was stamped “void” while some was specified as worth up to five situations the confront benefit. Each and every crew member had thirty seconds and the objective was to get as lots of charges on the plate in two minutes as possible. The best team collected $833. 

Laughter abounded in the Pupil Recreation Heart gymnasium by the competitors and the rivalry was rigorous.

The students’ scores for the 3 troubles comprised 75 p.c of their group problem score although the remaining 25 per cent of their full arrived from their marks on the unique tests.

Major groups

The group competitors winners, outlined by division and college, alongside with the names of team customers and their instructor), have been:

Accounting I – Higher University Crew

• To start with spot – Flora Higher Faculty: Alicia Westjohn (trainer), Dani Henson, Eli Duke, Lanie Carder, Quincy Booth.
• 2nd spot – Pinckneyville Community Significant Faculty: Heather Genesio (instructor), Sarah Restoff, Jillian Shaneyfelt, James Davis, Layne Jones.

Accounting II – Higher School Staff

• 1st put – Centralia High College: Beth Toennies (teacher), Abby Allen, Tyler O’Neil, Ben Watson.
• 2nd area – Vernon Township High School: Julie Hayes (teacher), Katie Bach, Blaze Greathouse, Zada Wilkey.

SIU pupils led the way

The accounting obstacle is coordinated by SIU students and continuing a tradition that dates again much more than two a long time necessitates creativeness, dedication and hard operate by the event’s college student organizers, in accordance to Odom.

Coordinators for this year’s competition have been:

• Vonni Waters, a master’s college student in accountancy from Boonville, Indiana.
• Beining Jiang, a junior accounting major from Changchun, China.
• Loralei Glueck, a junior accounting big from Tremont, Illinois.
• Jaiden Sanders, a junior accounting main from Vienna, Illinois.
• Nija Harvey, administrative aide, College of Accountancy.

Other pupils, school and workers assisted with the celebration as effectively.