Goodman School of Business student Shreya Verma was the ASA President for the 2014/15 academic year.
Where is your hometown? What inspired you to pick the Goodman School of Business for your accounting degree?
I am originally from a small island off the coast of Africa called Seychelles. If you were to look at a map of the world, it’s an extremely tiny dot right above Madagascar. My family and I moved when I was about 6 years old and settled in Brampton, and I’ve been there since! To be quite honest, Brock was never initially on my radar, as I merely just knew of the name and nothing about the business programs. It wasn’t until I was getting my acceptance letters that I realized that the schools I had applied to (and there were 10) weren’t exactly a fit for me – there was something missing. I knew I specifically wanted to do accounting and the programs I was applying to just didn’t seem concentrated enough. My parents also wanted me to experience being independent and after seeing my sister live the residence life, I knew that was exactly what I wanted.
After speaking to a couple of my friends who had applied to Brock, the Accounting Co-op Program really stood out to me, as I’ve always been the type of person to value hands on practical experience. Unfortunately, due to my indecisiveness, the Accounting Program had already closed by the time I went to apply. I was pretty bummed, as I didn’t know what my next steps were going to be. However, after reaching out about my options, I applied for the BBA Co-op program with the mindset that I was going to work hard to achieve the average needed to make the switch to Accounting, which is what I did!
I’d made my decision without even doing a campus visit, but after Smart Start I knew I’d made the right choice. I loved the small classroom learning environments, the open and welcoming attitudes of everyone I met, and the great amount of opportunities to get involved. With all that I’ve gained from choosing Goodman School of Business so far, I can honestly say with no regrets, that I had made the best last minute decision of my life!
The Goodman Consulting Competition happened a few weeks ago – what’s your favourite part of this senior case competition?
The Goodman Consulting Competition (GCC) is one of ASA’s newer initiatives. It is a unique internal consulting competition for our senior-level students (undergraduate and graduate) at the Goodman School of Business. It involves a six-week process where students have the opportunity to work closely with a real-life business to find an innovative solution to their business problem. The competition requires skills in various aspects of business including accounting, finance, marketing, human resources, etc.
My favourite part of this competition is the chance to work with an actual business client. For many students who are not in the co-op program, including myself, this is a great way to apply what’s learned in the classroom and gain that practical experience before going out into the consulting industry. You also have the opportunity to develop your soft-skills, such as professionalism and communication as you are working closely with the client.
This year it was especially nice working alongside our client Aaron Gorka, from Airon Group, as he along with the ASA team collaborated on ideas to make this process as real as possible. Throughout the process we had a client presentation, client meetings, debriefs and finally the presentations to the client. Overall, I would recommend this competition to any student wanting to gain an introduction to the consulting industry.
In addition to being a BAcc student and president of the Brock Accounting Students’ Association, you co-owned your own jewelry company called Mae. What inspired you to start your own business?
I have always been a creative individual and I wanted an outlet to show that. At the time, my friend and I saw the popularity in “arm candy” increasing and we thought it would be a great idea to combine our creativity and love of fashion, turning it into a business. We made a variety of bracelets by hand and sold them to our targeted audience of young individuals.
It was a very small business as it was a two-people show. The financial planning, budgeting, production and marketing tasks were all divided between the two of us. We established our brand “Mae” through social media and word of mouth. Given the passion we had for our idea, the thought of running our own business and seeing the potential growth of it was all very exciting. I was very glad we had the opportunity as it definitely gave me an insight to the entrepreneurial world as well.
What’s your favourite inspirational quote about business?
I recently read a book suggested by Rachel Williams, former Goodman staff member, called Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. It was an exceptional book and everything entailed the secret to success.
One of the lines that Ferrazzi wrote that stood out to me was the following:
“The choice isn’t between success and failure; it’s between choosing risk and striving for greatness, or risking nothing and being certain of mediocrity.”
I think this quote aligns with almost anything you do in life. I can definitely relate it back to the risk of following my gut and choosing the Goodman School of Business, or even more recently getting out of my comfort zone to apply for the role of President on the Brock University Accounting Students’ Association.
For someone who used to take minimal risks, I have learned very quickly that you will only achieve more if you get out of your comfort zone and jump at the opportunities available. If you are satisfied with mediocrity, you will never know what it is like to push beyond your limits and see what you are really capable of doing.
It’s the end of the semester after a very busy year. What are your plans for 2015-2016?
2015 – 2016 will be an exciting year for me as I have a lot of events going on. I will be co-chairing Goodman’s only external competition, the Brock University Accounting Conference, alongside my peer Katelyn Hall. We have already begun planning for it and are extremely excited to see it grow over the next few months.
I am also expected to graduate in December 2015, so I am hoping to begin working at an accounting firm afterwards to begin pursuing the CPA designation. As I mentioned before, I extremely value hands-on experience so I am very excited to finally take what I have learned over these past four years and apply it to the real world (but I am most definitely not looking forward to never being able to sleep in again).
On a more personal level, my sister will be getting married in the summer of 2016. It’ll be the very first wedding in the house so we are all very excited. Since I’ll finally be back home, I am especially excited to get to help with all the planning and be by her side every step of the way!
I am looking forward to the eventful year ahead!
