EDUCATION
BACK to CLASS CPAs find adjunct professorships are a great way to reach students and complement their own careers.
Harold Martin, CPA
Harold Martin, CPA, played guitar at an AICPA
conference. Jessica McClain, CPA, is a season ticket holder for the Washington Commanders. Jonathan Saad, CPA, enjoys playing golf and tennis in his free time. Hope Cupit, CPA, has a son whose football games air on ESPN. But you’d never know that from their syllabi. Harold, Jessica, Jonathan and Hope are all adjunct professors and also full-time CPAs. Adjunct professorships provide a way for accountants to teach skills gleaned from their real-world experiences to interested college students — all while keeping their full-time positions at CPA firms or in other finance roles.
By Tori Smith
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DISCLOSURES
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Hope Cupit, CPA can fit into a variety of circumstances and careers, from teaching one online class to creating a postretirement teaching career.
LECTURING FROM A LAPTOP Jessica has been entranced with the idea of accounting ever since elementary school. When she saw a substitute teacher who was also an accountant with money in her purse, she knew she wanted to enter the profession. Jessica graduated from Towson University with a degree in business in 2006 and then saw the vast career opportunities the accounting profession can provide. So, she graduated with her master’s in accounting shortly after earning her bachelor’s degree.
As the number of accounting students declines and fears grow about keeping the pipeline full of CPA candidates, and as the number of full-time accounting professors also declines, adjuncts are key to enticing students to pursue accounting careers when they graduate.
Since then, Jessica has worked at a Big 4 Firm, public accounting firm, nonprofit and various other companies. She is currently the CFO of Girl Scout’s Nation’s Capital in Washington, D.C.
Here, four VSCPA members share their journeys to the classroom, demonstrating how teaching
Although being an adjunct professor wasn’t at the top of her priority list, she kept it in the back
FALL 2022