Senior Peter Monn said he considers UW-Eau Claire’s accounting department to be an effective and rigorous academic program – one that provides the level of challenge and guidance needed to prepare students for their professional aspirations.

But until a project in which he analyzed financial statements for local non-profit organizations provided him with practical experience, he said he didn’t know how his education would translate into a profession.

“The accounting program is pretty extensive, (and) very demanding,” he said. “But actually doing it, (receiving) real-life experience is better.”

D’Arcy Becker, an accounting and finance associate professor, coordinates the program and offers financial reviews to seven Chippewa Valley non-profit organizations this semester.

Students who wish to participate in the project must have completed Becker’s auditing class, Accounting 413, and have notified her, she said.

The purpose of the project, which began a few years ago when a local non-profit organization could no longer afford to pay for financial assessments, is to allow students the opportunity to apply their academic experience to the real world, Becker said.

“(The students) get to work with real clients, and it’s real information,” she said. “It’s not all set up for them.”

Some of the real-life tasks students face during the project include reviewing revenue records, verifying revenue and performing assessments of various business-related expenses, she said.

Monn said he and his partner for the project, senior Chad Roehl, performed the sort of tasks that helped him solidify his decision to work in the accounting field as a financial auditor.

“I’d like to do auditing … of the whole business,” he said. “Later, I’d like to get into corporate accounting.”

Monn said that he would probably end up working for a public accounting firm that assesses businesses’ financial situations.

Roehl, who plans on receiving his teaching license and instructing high school business classes, said that he benefited from the project in a different way – having seen the importance of giving students the opportunity to gain real-world experience will make him a more effective teacher.

“There are two different types of learning … in the classroom and then real-world experience,” he said. “Once I become a teacher, I will be able to give more real life experiences to the students.”

In addition to real-world experience, students can fulfill their Service-Learning requirement with their projects, Becker said.

Donald Mowry, director of Service-Learning, said that ideal projects benefit not only the student, but also the university and the community at large.

“Ideally, Service-Learning, when it’s done well … it benefits everybody,” he said. “That could include receiving experience in (a student’s) field.”