{"id":69037,"date":"2020-11-05T09:29:46","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T14:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=69037"},"modified":"2020-11-05T16:09:29","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T21:09:29","slug":"macc-program-celebrates-20-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2020\/11\/macc-program-celebrates-20-years\/","title":{"rendered":"MAcc program celebrates 20 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a surefire way to get Stephen McCourt (BAcc \u201999, MAcc \u201901) to notice a resum\u00e9 when applying for a job at RSM Canada\u2019s Toronto offices.<\/p>\n

Mention your Accounting degree is from Brock University\u2019s Goodman School of Business, and you\u2019ll pique the interest of the partner at one of North America\u2019s largest independent audit, tax and consulting firms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt for me when I see that, I\u2019m going to dig a little deeper into that resum\u00e9,\u201d McCourt said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a differentiator in the pile for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because McCourt is a Goodman Accounting Co-op alumnus. More notably though, he was also one of the first students to enrol in and graduate from the school\u2019s Master of Accountancy (MAcc) program when it launched 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

Pursuing a graduate degree in accounting wasn\u2019t a requirement of the profession at the time. But McCourt had a passion for numbers, higher learning \u2014 he was considering pursuing his PhD \u2014 and especially for Brock.<\/p>\n

\u201cI already had a strong affinity for Brock and enjoyed my time in the undergraduate program. I really valued what it did for my personal and professional development,\u201d McCourt said. \u201cThere was an element of loyalty and excitement to continue on the journey that I was already on. I also had the full support of my employer. This support and loyalty has led me to now being a partner at the same firm that I articled with as a co-op student at Brock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

The first Master of Accountancy class, circa 2001.<\/p><\/div>\n

It took some serious planning and strategizing to get the MAcc in place for its 2000 launch, however. Linda Stillabower was hired as an Accounting professor at Brock in 1993, and she arrived on campus determined there would be a day when her students would include those at the graduate level.<\/p>\n

Three years later, she sat on a committee whose mission was to get the green light from both the University and the province to launch the year-long program. The committee developed an integrated curriculum, a concept that was ahead of the curve but would bode well for the school later when its MAcc was certified as a Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario (CPA) pathway program in 2013. It would be the first to be accredited in Ontario and become a flagship for Goodman in the process. The MAcc also blazed a trail for other business graduate programs at Brock, including the Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Science in Management (MSc), and certificate and double degree programs that followed.<\/p>\n

But Stillabower wasn\u2019t thinking about any of that as she stood in front of the inaugural MAcc class in 2000, trying to keep tears in check.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew them quite well and we worked their butts off,\u201d said Stillabower, who still teaches in the program. \u201cThat first day of orientation, I could barely believe it without crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program was a lesson in discipline and dedication for McCourt. The payoff was a more confident version of himself \u2014 someone with strong communication and presentation skills, and the ability to think on his feet and outside the proverbial box. He also learned to consider issues and challenges from a variety of perspectives.<\/p>\n

A program with global appeal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard Ye (MAcc \u201901) arrived in St. Catharines from Shanghai in the fall of 2000 as part of the first international cohort admitted to the program. Ye was keen to go abroad and see how things are done elsewhere.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d already spent three years working for Ernst & Young in China so coming to Canada to study was the ideal opportunity for personal and professional advancement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Canadian accounting standards are very solid and superior in the accounting world,\u201d Ye said. \u201cIn China back then, three credentials were very famous: AICPA in the U.S. and the ACCA in the U.K. The third one is Canadian and it was the CGA. It wasn\u2019t the biggest body in Canada (at the time), but these three were very recognizable in the Chinese market. If you held international credentials, you were very marketable.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduation, Ye stayed in Canada, having both his family and career here. His academic achievements and previous work experience helped him secure a job with an accounting firm before finishing his studies.<\/p>\n

He’s now the director of treasury at Maple Leaf Foods and a proud Goodman alumnus.<\/p>\n

The number of applicants to Goodman\u2019s MAcc and other graduate program over the years has only grown since McCourt and Ye began their studies.<\/p>\n

Given the MAcc is a pathway to earning the CPA designation today, the program holds even greater allure than when it originated in 2000. It allows students to earn the professional certification in half the time that those balancing an accounting job with CPA exam preparations do.<\/p>\n

Goodman\u2019s MAcc graduates also have a high success rate on the CPA exam.<\/p>\n

And if McCourt is any gauge, they\u2019re also successful at getting their resum\u00e9s seen. He credits his MAcc degree with helping him get to where he is in the accounting world today, including hiring the best and the brightest accountants in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe skills I developed in that program have helped me in my career,\u201d he said. \u201cWithout a doubt, it was the best decision I ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a surefire way to get Stephen McCourt (BAcc \u201999, MAcc \u201901) to notice a resum\u00e9 when applying for a job at RSM Canada\u2019s Toronto offices \u2014 mention an Accounting degree from Brock University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":69041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,7,188,55,1,4],"tags":[154,283,817,594,3330,9658,9656,9657,9660,9659],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69037"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69043,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69037\/revisions\/69043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}