A major strength of our program is our high-quality students. Our graduate students in particular come from a large variety of backgrounds, ready to immerse themselves in everything accounting. Meet a few of our current MPA students:
Charles Walper, MPA ‘16
Current Track: Assurance
What’s been your favorite class so far?
Finance with Prof. Rao. It’s always been a topic I was curious about and has been enlightening so far.
What would be your dream career upon graduation?
Forensic accounting or fraud examination.
Favorite accounting joke?
How can you tell when an accountant is extroverted?
He looks at your shoes while he’s talking to you instead of his own.
Favorite place on campus?
The MPA Lounge
Hobby?
Baking
Favorite thing to do in Austin?
Trying new restaurants.
Maia Yang, MPA ‘16
Current Track: Financial Reporting and Assurance
What’s been your favorite class so far?
Mix of Intermediate with Koonce and Financial Accounting with Lendecky
What would be your dream career upon graduation?
My dream career would be one in which I could combine my passion for assisting women and my passion for business and efficiency. This could potentially manifest itself in many directions, but becoming CFO of a company I believe in or running my own social business are two directions I have thought about as dream jobs.
What were you up to before joining the MPA program?
Before coming to the MPA program at UT Austin, I was on a Watson Fellowship researching microfinance from the female borrower’s perspective. I had the opportunity to interview over 200 women running businesses in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Rwanda, and Peru. I was asked often by the women I spoke with to help them figure out solutions for their businesses or to assist them in communicating with their banks over a disagreement. In many cases, these disagreements involved fraudulent financial reporting on the microfinance institutions end and I, of course, had no clue how to go about solving these issues.
Hobby?
I like tinkering with my car if the problem is small enough for me to fix. I am by no means all knowledgeable about cars, but I find a satisfaction out of being able to fix something on my own instead of taking it in.
Kaleb Pereira, MPA ‘18
Current Track: Managerial Accounting and Control & Financial Reporting and Assurance
Why McCombs?
When the #1 accounting program is so close to home (Kaleb is from Texas), it’s really a no-brainer. I knew I wanted to do accounting and that there was no better place to do it than McCombs.
What would be your dream career upon graduation?
If I could walk out of McCombs and become Beyoncé’s financial advisor; then that would probably be a dream come true. I guess I could settle for any celebrity really; I’m just fascinated with the entertainment industry.
Why did you choose to become involved with MPAC?
I really wanted the opportunity to get to know fellow MPA students outside of the classroom without all of the stress. It also seemed like a great way to get to meet some of the older iMPA students and the traditional MPAs, with whom we don’t get to interact as often.