About » Best Practices
August 11, 2008
Foster School's Beta Alpha Psi Chapter Tops Nation in Best Practices
The Delta chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, comprised of students at the University of Washington Foster School of Business, has won two of three national “Best Practices” awards at the prestigious accounting organization’s annual meeting in Anaheim, CA.
Shining among the 286 chapters vying for top honors in three categories, Foster accounting students brought home two gold medals and one silver:
Best Practices in Strategic Planning: BAP in 10 years – Andrew Alwood (BA 2008, with Ernst & Young), Fanny Shellenberger (BAP Chief Events Officer), Bonnie Walter (BAP President) and Megan Yeung (BAP VP of Service and Webmaster) won for their long-range organizational plan for Beta Alpha Psi, which included social networking, sharing speakers through video-conferencing, and a study abroad program for accounting students.
Best Practices in Service: Making A Difference in an Economically Distressed Community – Roya Labib (MPAcc-Audit & Assurance student, Deloitte intern) and Brad Williams (MPAcc-Taxation student, Deloitte intern), won for their program that made significant contributions to autistic youths in eight Seattle high schools.
Best Practices in Service: Financial Literacy for College Students – Stephanie Chu (MPAcc-Taxation student, Deloitte intern), Vildana Kunduklija (MPAcc-Audit & Assurance student, Ernst & Young intern) and Whitney Langendorfer (BA 2008, with Ernst & Young), finished in second-place for their partnership with Washington Mutual to present a series of workshops at the UW on financial issues facing college-age people.
“The stars were aligned,” said Deborah Medlar, faculty advisor for Beta Alpha Psi at the Foster School. “The students’ polish and effort was quite impressive, even to me, and I had seen them present before. To have so many schools vying for these awards and still place nationally in all three and win two – it’s just amazing.”
In April, the Foster School students won all three categories at the Beta Alpha Psi Northwest Regional Meeting to qualify for the National Best Practices Competition.
The competition, sponsored by Deloitte LLP, recognized Beta Alpha Psi chapters whose innovative programs and activities help further specific goals identified by the organization and serve as exemplars to other chapters.
The Foster School’s Beta Alpha Psi, founded in 1921, is the venerable organization’s fourth-oldest chapter. It’s also one of the largest (annual membership between 200-250 students) and most celebrated (recognized as a Superior Chapter for the past seven years).
Beta Alpha Psi provides professional development to nearly half of all accounting students at the Foster School, as well as community service opportunities with Junior Achievers, the U-District Food Bank and the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. The VITA program received special commendation at the annual meeting from the Internal Revenue Service for having the most members contributing more than five hours.
Also at the meeting, the following Foster School students (and recent graduates) were named Beta Alpha Psi International Scholars: Tracie Tripple, Austin Cordova-Sanchez, Joe Holmes, Jordan Lavine.