Category Archives: Melissa

Melissa Hodges’ posts

Academics, Events, Melissa, Student Life

The Man in the Glass

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Harvin C Moore IIIA few weeks ago, Professor Limburg and the MPA program welcomed Harvin C. Moore to speak at our Distinguished Speaker Lyceum.

Mr. Moore began his presentation with some relatable stories, his qualifications, and who he was. To give you some background, Mr. Moore was a lawyer, businessman, and UT Grad (Hook ‘Em!) who had much success in both Real Estate Development and the Savings and Loan business. He was known for having a “Midas touch”  due to his gift for putting together lucrative real estate deals. His story seemed to be similar to others we have had the pleasure of hearing this semester in Lyceum- a successful businessperson who has graciously volunteered their time to share with us personal anecdotes and provide some advice before we head off into the real world.

All of a sudden, Mr. Moore began describing a scenario to us and asked us to close our eyes and imagine a man standing alone in the middle of El Paso. (Are you a little confused? Don’t worry- we were too.) Much to our surprise, we open our eyes and see Mr. Moore standing on stage and he begins to tell us of his time in PRISON in El Paso. His company had been issuing illegal loans, and justifying it to themselves because they were solvent at the time of the loan. Being solvent doesn’t negate the fact that the type of loaning Mr. Moore was participating in was illegal. He explained that after he was notified about the criminal charges, he knew he could not sit in the court room and plead “not guilty.”  Thus, Mr. Moore went to prison.

I found his story so interesting, and it was quite an eye-opener to the entire Lyceum audience. The MPA program provides us with ample opportunities to succeed, yet once we do succeed, we must be sure that we maintain our ethical principles. In his message, Mr. Moore alluded to the poem, The Man in the Glass, by Dale Wimbrow. The poem reminds us that we will all have the opportunity at least once in our lives to act in a way that compromises our ethical beliefs, but if you can’t live with yourself after you make such decision, it probably is the wrong decision.

Academics, Feature, Melissa, Student Life

Welcome back, Longhorns!

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BevoWelcome back, everyone! If you are new to the MPA program this year- congratulations and I hope you are excited for an amazing year! I hope everyone had a wonderful summer and the transition back into the swing of things isn’t proving to be too difficult. My summer was a fun one, but I am glad to be back at McCombs.

Over the summer I was informed of some fantastic news about UT. The UT Austin ALPFA Chapter received the Student Chapter Award for the Central Region! ALPFA is largest Latino association for business professionals and students with chapters nationwide. Every year they chose a student chapter from each region and this year, it was UT! I am increasingly humbled and honored to be a part of this school when I learn about all of the accomplishments and accolades that UT is constantly bringing in.

Another tidbit of exciting news this summer was the selection of the winners for the 2012 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards. This year, two McCombs professors were honorable recipients, Anitesh Barua and Steven Kachelmeier. I had the opportunity to take an MPA class with Professor Kachelmeier last semester and it is great to see a familiar professor receive this award! In the article, Professor Kachelmeier is quoted regarding the importance of passion in a teaching role saying, “If a teacher is not passionate about the subject matter, one can hardly expect students to feel otherwise.” Passion about the subject is something that I really value in a professor and if you are new to McCombs this year, you can certainly expect to see passion for their subject is key to McCombs professors.

Career, Employment, Melissa, Student Life

Sacrificed communication

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Before Facebook chat and text messaging, AIM was my technology-based communication of choice

Technology has always been something I have been really passionate about- hence, when I became an MPA, I kept MIS as my minor here at McCombs. I look at websites, read blogs, etc. and just love to hear the fascinating stories about how technology is shaping and improving the world we live in. However, something else very crucial to the changing world is communication. I am a strong believer in the importance of honest communication and believe that communicating, itself, also shapes and improves the world we live in.

That being said, I was intrigued when I came across a NYTimes article this morning that contrasts ‘communication’ with ‘connection,’ and discusses the role that technology has in the “sacrificing of communication.”

The article goes on to explain the notion of being “alone together.” In a world where we are attached to our smart phones and computers, we feel constantly connected to all of the people in our lives. Sherry Turkle, the author, goes on to explain how we expect more from technology and less from each other. We feel like, because we could send an email or text message at any time, we are all connected. Of course, this is important in a world that is getting smaller and I am not trying to downplay any of the amazing technologies that help business communication today. I just think it is important to remember that there is a difference in what you get out of a face-to-face conversation vs. one online or via email. Continue reading Sacrificed communication →

Events, Melissa, Recruiting, Student Life

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?'” -MLK

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My donated TOMS!

Last week, a group of MPA students, myself included, who are recruiting with one of the Big 4, had the opportunity to participate in an activity co-sponsored by TOMS shoes. For those of you who may not know the story behind TOMS, essentially they donate one pair of shoes to someone in need everytime a pair is purchased.

At the recruiting event, the donations were two-fold. First, because of the buy one-give one strategy at TOMS, one pair of shoes was donated to someone in need for every student attending the event. Second, we also donated our decorated TOMS to a local Austin charity.

The community service aspect of public accounting certainly increases my desire to work in the industry. All of the Big 4 have multiple ways of helping to serve and improve the community. Midcaps and regional firms definitely participate in community service as well- I am just focusing on the Big 4 for the sake of this blog.

Here are some of my favorite community service efforts by the Big 4:

Deloitte’s big community service event is called IMPACT day. On IMPACT day, Deloitte professionals across the country all set aside their work and work for a nonprofit in their community. Just to put this in perspective, there are OVER 50,000 Deloitte employees nationwide and almost all of them will participate in this special day- that’s a lot of community service!

A great community service effort was done by KPMG last September, on the 10th anniversary of the tragic events of September 11th, 2001. KPMG called this campaign, “Service in Remembrance.” For this campaign, KPMG professionals teamed up with the rest of the nation and over 200 nonprofits in honor the victims and the heroes of September 11th. Continue reading “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?’” -MLK →

Academics, CPA Exam, Melissa, Student Life

CPA FAQ

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My MPA friends and I at a recruiting event last week. With all this recruiting, the CPA exam is the last thing on our minds.

Hey everyone! A lot of my friends are starting to sit for the CPA exam and I realized that I probably don’t know enough about the exam or what it entails. There is so much online about the CPA exam and I will share some of my findings with you!

First, you have to qualify to sit for the exam. The AICPA does a great job at covering anything and everything you would want to know about qualifying for the exam in their Uniform CPA Candidate Bulletin.

Next, be sure to know the specific rules that your state requires. UT does a great job at helping MPAs to meet the Texas exam requirements. Some of which include: 150 semester hours and a BBA degree, 30 upper division accounting hours and 24 related business hours as well as a 3-hour ethics course. What is great about McCombs is that when we graduate we have met the educational requirements- even the ethics course!

As far as preparing for the exam, I haven’t started since I am just a third-year, but I know it takes a lot of disciplined studying. There are many different prep courses and I would definitely recommend talking to the 5th-year MPAs to see what they have used to study.

Lastly, there are 4 sections of the exam; Financial, Regulation, Audit, and Business. Since MPAs love acronyms and abbreviations, you’ve may have heard the sections referred to as FAR, REG, AUD, and BEC, respectively. FAR and AUD both contain 90 multiple choice questions and 7 task-based simulations. REG has 72 multiple choice questions and 6 task-based simulations. And finally, BEC has 72 multiple choice questions and three written tasks. It is quite a lengthy exam which is probably why each section is taken separately.

The CPA exam seems so far in my future, but it is good to be prepared before starting the process! Good luck, everyone!