MAccing An Impact

Welcome back, future accounting superstars! The second day of MAcc orientation was just as fun as the first, but much more impactful (pun intended).

The Sanger Leadership Center Impact Challenge is an all-day event that builds leadership skills through a philanthropic project benefiting Detroit. We met with students and teachers from Cornerstone Schools, a K-12 school focused on making students college-ready.

Reggie giving us feedback. Such a well-spoken middle schooler!

Our task was to create a year-long plan and a one day event to encourage students to explore different business careers, engage in professional development, and make a college readiness program. The MAcc program was broken into two groups, one half targeting high school students and the other half focusing on middle schoolers.

My group was tasked with convincing middle schoolers to think about these adult concepts, which we embraced as a challenge. We developed a curriculum where we’d teach a different career skill every month, with topics such as professional dress, elevator pitches, and conflict resolution.

Accountants being creative!

Our one day event involved activities such as college preparation jeopardy, MLB (Money Literacy Baseball), and a simulation game where students picked different education levels to see what type of lifestyle - houses, cars, clothing - they could afford. This game would emphasize the positive impact of a college degree on lifetime earnings.

All groups made posters demonstrating their plans and presented them to a panel of judges which included Ross MAcc faculty, Sanger Leadership Center faculty, and teachers and students from Cornerstone Schools. We MAcc students also voted for our favorite groups.

One winning team was crowned from the high school and middle school categories. My group actually won the middle school competition! The MAcc Student Association’s Philanthropy subcommittee will take these ideas and implement them over the year by visiting the school regularly. I joined this committee and am excited to help put our ideas into action to help create a brighter future for the kids at Cornerstone Schools.

GO BLUE!