L/C
1
2
Round 3
4
5
6
B
A
INTERVIEWS AND STORIES BY TINA POTTERF
100
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Alumni Dish on Inspiring Teachers
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My Favorite Professor
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An Education of Distinction
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70
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Dan Nicholson, ’03 (Accounting) on Professor Susan Weihrich (Accounting/Albers)
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30
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100 40
100 40
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40 70 40
is perhaps the single most important thing I have on my résumé. And if not for Susan, I wouldn’t have even known it existed. When I returned to Seattle I worked at Deloitte & Touche and in 2010 started my own accounting firm, Nth Degree CPAs. Susan stands out as my favorite professor for many reasons. She takes so much interest in her students, is always available and a great resource. She got me thinking about a lot of things and saw the potential in me that I may not have seen in myself. My experience at SU was, in one word, transformative.” Dan Nicholson is president-elect of the Alumni Board of Governors and a CPA who owns an accounting firm.
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I
came to Seattle University, while still in high school, for an Earth Day event and I fell in love with the campus. How did I get into the world of accounting? It started with a job in finance I got at the end of my freshman year. While at SU I was invited by Professor Weihrich to attend a luncheon to learn more about the accounting program. I found I was good at it. Later, Susan was instrumental in helping me land a prestigious yearlong Governmental Accounting Standards Board fellowship in Connecticut. This was such a great experience and I learned so much as part of the program, which included spending time in New York City on Wall Street. The fellowship
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Susan Weihrich
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ICS# 120353 • Seattle University 2012 Fall Seattle U Magazine - 56 pg. 9” x 11” • 175 lpi • PDFX1a • G7_GRACoL • 60# Orion Satin
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN KEATLEY
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which involves storytelling as a means to explain the heady subject matter. “I ask a lot of questions and try to call on every student every class,” she says. “Someone wrote on their evaluation of me that having someone call on them helped them not to be shy and to open up. I expect my students to come to class and be engaged in the discussion. If they work hard in class, they will succeed.” Weihrich remembers Dan as an “awesome student who was always prepared for class.” The recognition as her former student’s favorite professor means a lot, she says. “Dan always put a lot of expectations on himself. So this means that I have lived up to those expectations.”
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W
orking in the field of accounting seemed a natural choice for Susan Weihrich, who followed in the footsteps of her father, himself an accountant. For 23 years, Professor Weihrich has taught accounting at Albers. These days, in addition to leading her tax accounting courses, she serves as associate dean. For many years she headed up the VITA tax preparation service, with SU accounting students helping to prepare taxes for low-income residents in the community. She considers the accounting students a “very hard working” bunch who respond well to her style of teaching,