Guest Blogger: Lisle Friedman

Yesterday, I introduced you to one of our newest guest bloggers, Elizabeth Dorrance. It is with great pleasure to introduce you to another, very talented graduate student. Lisle is in our Master of Science in Accountancy (MAC) program. Both women will share with you their experiences over the next semester, so be sure to stay tuned.

Back to school…and right to work!  The professors wasted no time delving right into the curriculum and it appears as though it is going to be a very busy semester.  Because the program is small enough that I know everybody well (25 students), it was comforting to see all familiar faces in my classes and I was thankful that every class requires at least one team project.

This semester I am taking 4 classes for 12 credits including Financial Statement Analysis, Internal Audit/Forensic Accounting, Protection of Information Assets, and Negotiations.

Our program director, Mike Cipriano, also teaches our Financial Statement Analysis class and he has already assigned a very interesting, but very lengthy project due next week. We have been asked to look into our lives and predict where we will be in 30 years thanks to our Masters of Accountancy degree from the College of Charleston, compared to where we would be had we not made the decision to get a Master’s. We have to look into everything from lifelong revenues and opportunities to spouses, kids, cars, houses and other revenues/expenses along the way. Eventually, we will be able to determine the “value” of our Masters degree relative to its cost. I am excited to see what my study produces!  I will be sure to update after the project is completed.

The Internal Audit/Forensic Accounting class will definitely benefit my future for Dr. Koprowski (Dept Chair) is teaching not only about the internal audit profession but also in a manner that will allow us to be Certified Internal Auditors once we graduate!  The best part is that our costs of doing the CIA Exam are offered at a 50% discount because we are full time students — you can’t beat that!

I am very happy to be taking Dr. Henderson again this semester and am anxious to continue developing my IT skills in his class, Protection of Information Assets.  The best way to catch thieves is to think like a thief.  In this class, we get to learn the secrets in how to do just that!  As “white hat” hackers, we have been given loaner laptops from the school where we will load things such as key loggers, viruses and other hacking tools in order to learn how to test the security of systems when we venture out into the real world.

The class I am most looking forward to this semester is my Negotiations class. Professor Wilcox is a fascinating man with a worldly education who has created a very hands-on class that allows us to take our studies to practice in Simulated Negotiations against our classmates. We get role-play exercises to gain experience using theory to improve our negotiation skills in business as well as life!  Our grade will be based almost exclusively on how well we negotiate with/against our classmates!!

I am very fortunate to be working as a Graduate Assistant for Mike (the Program Director). Besides covering nearly all of my education costs, my GA position has provided me the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting candidates who will hopefully be the incoming MS ACCY class of 2011. This Saturday, I will be meeting with a girl for lunch coming all the way for Michigan who is interested in joining our program. I am also in the process of creating a database for the incoming students on great places to live in the area as well as identifying current students who will need their leases taken over to help the incoming students who are moving to Charleston from out of state (like I was last year)!

I have also been the event planner for our infamous “Accountant Nights Out” that we hold once a month for the students to interact outside of the classroom to help build camaraderie in the program. So far we have attended a comedy show, had dinner parties and enjoyed several happy hours. We are looking to expand into new and fun things this semester to explore all that Charleston has to offer. I am looking forward to planning (and attending) my first Oyster Roast soon!

I hope to update this blog every few weeks as things are happening to me in the program and in this amazingly fun city of Charleston!  That’s all for now – Lisle Friedman

Related posts:
Guest blogger: Elizabeth Dorrance
Guest blogger: Niki DeWeese
Guest blogger: Adam Johnson