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September 26, 2008

ULM’s Eta Sigma Chapter collects valuable professional experience; supports breast cancer research

ULM’s Eta Sigma Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, an honorary organization for accounting, finance and information systems students and professionals, has had a very active semester thus far.

Eight members of the Eta Sigma Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi recently traveled to Anaheim, Calif., to attend the annual meeting of the organization Aug. 6-9, where chapters from as far away as Sydney, Australia, were present.

Students representing ULM were Katie Robinson, president; Jaime Hill, executive vice president; Joel Foret, vice president of programs; Connor Clark, vice president of service; Joel Ramsey, executive secretary; Rachel Stark, treasurer; Alex Deshowitz; and Ashlyn Labat.

All students and their faculty advisor, Patti Roshto, participated in a four-hour community service project helping to clean a public area where the City of Anaheim plans to construct a park.

Robinson, and Hill participated in a session where they presented information on appropriate dress for different business situations.

During the conference the Eta Sigma Chapter was recognized as a Superior Chapter in the organization, having amassed almost 500 hours of service work and almost 600 hours of professional programs during the past academic year.

Clark and Deshowitz also participated in an intensive program at the conference.

During the competition, five student teams consisting of three or four members each worked with a not-for-profit agency to solve one of a variety of real business issues, including:

• How to increase membership and/or fundraising dollars and still maintain appropriate internal controls.
• How to create a better Web site to attract new members or donors.
• How to deal with the tax issues concerning the relationship between a 501c(6) and a 501c(3).

The teams spent 12 hours formulating their solutions and creating accompanying presentations. They presented their solutions to three separate judging panels, each consisting of a not-for-profit representative, a faculty advisor, and a local partner in the CPA firm that sponsored the event.

The students reported that the experience was a tremendous learning opportunity and they look forward to the chance of participating again next year.

At their regular meeting on Sept. 4, the Eta Sigma Chapter inducted five new members who qualified for active status. These students have maintained a 3.0 overall GPA as well as at least a 3.0 accounting GPA and have completed at least one professional accounting course.

The five new members are: Rachel Stark, Jerome Guine, Matthew Hollis, Ashlyn Labat, and Kelli Shields.

Presiding over the induction ceremony was Robinson. She was assisted by Clark, Ramsey and Hill.

Also, the Eta Sigma chapter has placed a collection box for Pink Yoplait Yogurt lids in the Student Union Building dining area. Yoplait will donate 10 cents per lid to support breast cancer research through the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Please deposit lids during the semester in the collection box, and a member of BAP will mail them to Yoplait at the end of the semester.

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