Category Archives: Events

Events that are happening around and with the MPA

Academics, Career, Employment, Events, MPA Council, MPAC, Recruiting, Student Life

First Impressions

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First impressions are important because they always last, and the same goes for my entrance to the MPA program. Notwithstanding a brief visit last fall and interacting with career services over the summer, my first impression of the actual MPA program began just a few weeks ago when all the new Traditional MPA students met, many for the first time. It was orientation week, and we were finally starting the journey we had been planning and anticipating for several months.

As we all gathered in the large banquet hall set aside for the first day, I was nervous about the people I would soon meet. What was everyone going to be like? Where was I going to fit in? Quickly, the fear passed to excitement as I began introducing myself to my new classmates. I’ve always enjoyed meeting new people, and there was no shortage of interesting backgrounds to discuss. Various schools, different areas of the country, and multiple nationalities were represented in the newest cohort. One thing we all had in common was our ambition to succeed and the stuff to make it happen.

Most of orientation week was centered on career services and academic planning. Vinh Nguyen spent time speaking with us about the different career paths available to MPAs. The “industry, audit, or tax” question could be a dissertation on its own, but it was something that many of us were still struggling with as we approached our first day of class. We had the chance to meet our professors at a breakfast and then hear their perspective on the “industry, audit, or tax” question. Also thrown in the mix were several events where we had to make our first impression on potential future employers: an etiquette dinner, a networking reception, and a career fair were all on the bill for the first week. We even had a chance to socialize as a class at a pizza and bowling party thrown by the MPA Council.

Back to first impressions, though. The professors are clearly passionate about what they do, and it is evident that they are proud to be a part of the MPA program. I’m sure you are aware of how big of a difference it makes when a teacher is excited about what they are teaching, and these folks have it. The career services department is top notch from their support and preparation to facilitating interaction with future employers. I ended the week with a pleasant optimism about my job prospects. The students I will be learning alongside are an extraordinarily bright and diverse group of fun people. The connections I made that week are sure to last a lifetime. Hopefully I left a good first impression on a few people, too!

Career, Events, Sarah, Student Life

I Met a Famous Author Thanks to UT!

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One of the most overlooked benefits of attending a large, prestigious school like the University of Texas is the abundance of interesting events available to students. So even though I’ve spent most of this semester hiding from the world and studying for my CPA exams, I couldn’t pass up the chance to see one of my favorite authors, Jodi Picoult, speak at the LBJ Library as part of the Middleton Lecture series. You might know her from some of her older books, such as My Sister’s Keeper and Nineteen Minutes, but she was here last week to discuss her new New York Times bestseller, The Storyteller; a hauntingly descriptive story of Holocaust survivors and the legacy they left behind.

In addition to convincing me that I needed to put aside my studying and immediately read her new novel (hey – who doesn’t need a break now and then anyway?), Picoult also shared some thoughts on more widely applicable topics such as the publishing industry, equality issues for women writers, and work-life balance.

Although I was, of course, intrigued by her discussion of the business side of self-publishing, the emergence of e-book sales, and the various issues related to piracy (you can see the entire discussion here), I think her most interesting topic of the night was the depth of research that goes into each book she writes. Beyond the research of historical or scientific facts, she discussed the care she takes to build relationships with people and diligently take in their opinions, thoughts, and stories.

It just goes to show that no matter how successful you become or how technically proficient you are at your job, the ability to connect with people and take the time to find the value of what they have to offer can still be your most valuable skill.

Alexandria, Austin, Events, Student Life

Run Austin! (2.0)

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Last year I wrote a blog post about the best places to run around in Austin on a day to day basis, and mentioned a few of Austin’s most famous races. (Click here if you missed it!) Austin has a strong running community and a ton of marathons and races. With spring on the horizon, I thought it a good time to discuss a few of the best races to run in Austin.

My friends and I at the Color Run last year

Let’s start off with the fun races.  Color Run, coming in May (sign up open January 15th!), is one of the most fun and colorful races in Austin! It has a national tour, so you can run the race in other cities around the country. This is a 5K run, about 3.1 miles long, where volunteers throw dry paint at you at the start and after each 1K you complete. You start wearing all white, and finish a colorful mess. Once you finish you are given a bag of dry paint of your own, and there is a massive dance party by the finish line where everyone dances and throws paint. I did it with a few friends last year, and highly recommend the race to runners and non-runners alike.

Warning: Make sure you shower the paint out of your hair (yes, it will get in your hair) as soon as you get home. I didn’t get all of the paint out immediately, and my hair had pink and green sections for a week following the race because I let the paint sit for a few hours. Unfortunately for me, that week after the race was full of public accounting firm career nights. Nothing like colored hair for networking!

Braving the mud with some fellow MPAs

Another fun, and extremely messy, race for everyone to do is the Muddy Buddy. This race, also part of a national tour, is a partner race where you mountain bike and run. There are obstacles throughout the course, including a large mud pit you crawl through with your partner at the end of the race. I particularly enjoyed the costume contest at the beginning, where the funniest costumes received some recognition and appreciation. There are a lot of races in Austin similar to this one, in particular the Warrior Dash and Mud Run.

The Gorilla Run may be one of the strangest races in Austin. Instead of a race t-shirt, each race participant receives a full gorilla costume to run in. Volunteers run dressed as bananas for the gorilla-clad racers to chase through Austin’s streets.

Austin has a number of zombie runs in the winter, where you attempt to outrun zombies as they chase you throughout an urban course.  I have also noticed many “urban-challenge” races as well. These are similar to the TV show “The Amazing Race” where you complete tasks around the city on foot, or take part in a city-wide scavenger hunt.

Come out the the LiveSTRONG half marathon and find me in my infamous Waldo race costume in the crowd!

Finally, I am going to make one final push for something I think everyone in Austin should take part in, whether it be racing or volunteering. I really think everyone should take part in the LiveSTRONG Marathon and Half Marathon while they are in Austin. It is a very energetic and inspiring race that I feel is unrivaled. Only slightly less than 3 weeks away! And, in case you are feeling particularly generous, I am raising money for the LiveSTRONG Foundation as a member of Team LiveSTRONG again this year, and you can see my personal page here.

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, Events, Sarah, Student Life

Choosing a Career Path: To Ph.D. or Not to Ph.D.

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One of the things I love most about the MPA program is the amazing faculty, so of course I jumped at the chance to attend Dr. Jeri Seidman’s “Don’t Mess With Taxes” presentation. Professor Seidman went broadly over some of her research findings, such as companies paying taxes on fraudulent income to avoid fraud detection and reasons for increases in the book-tax gap (the gap between what a company reports for book income and taxable income).

In her presentation, Professor Seidman also covered some of the basics of accounting research. As a dual degree student in Plan II (which, if you’re unfamiliar with the program, is essentially an interdisciplinary liberal arts degree) and the MPA program, the idea of research and writing really appeals to me. This, of course, begs the question: should I be considering a Ph.D. in accounting?

The thought has occurred to me before. After all, being a professor sounds pretty great. Teaching and researching – I mean it’s definitely hard work, but hard work that I would enjoy. So what does it take to get there? I started skimming through rankings and curriculum descriptions, and of course wasn’t surprised to find out that McCombs has a top program, so I decided that would be a good starting place to look at what it takes to get your Ph.D.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that getting a Ph.D. would require so much math, but nonetheless, once I got past my initial aversion to the words “probability” and “statistics”, I realized that the course work actually seems pretty interesting, ranging from math and economics classes to research seminars, all culminating in a final dissertation. From what I can tell, the MPA program has provided me with a strong starting point if I decided to pursue a Ph.D. here or at any other top school.

All this is not to say that pursuing a Ph.D. is the only way to have a career centered on research. During my internship in the spring, I had some amazing opportunities to work on research memos for clients facing various tax issues, which I loved! For now, at least, I think that’s definitely the place for me. I’m going to start back there full-time next fall and hopefully continue on similar research projects, but somewhere down the road, maybe a Ph.D. is something to consider?