Annie Paschall

Winter 2005 Sabbatical

(Faculty Professional Development Long-Term Leave)

 

 

Expectations:

As a teacher in a professional-technical area, I wanted to renew my own professional accounting skills. It had been over ten years since I worked fulltime as a CPA, and I needed to reconnect to the real work in that field, especially the accounting for firms engaged in manufacturing.. I also hoped to gain additional proficiency in accounting software programs that are in common use locally, particularly QuickBooks Pro. I thought that working in accounting offices for the three busiest months of the year would be the quickest way to refresh those skills, and it certainly was.

 

As a designer of curriculum, I was also looking for an opportunity to check our program outcomes against the real world situations encountered by our graduates. In the last few years we have totally revised the accounting program at LCC to increase the skills and abilities of our graduates. The goal of these changes is to make our graduates more valuable to their employers and to equip them for rapid promotion to higher paying positions that require substantial accounting and analytical skills. I wanted to be sure that the procedures and skills we teach in our accounting program are those that are actually needed by our graduates.

 

What I did:

I started in December with a two-day conference for payroll professionals presented by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry. In early January I attended two weeks of continuing professional education programs on tax, financial accounting and non-profit accounting with other staff members of Isler and Co, CPAs. It was exciting to be able to update my knowledge in so many areas in such a short time.

 

For the remainder of the term, I worked as a consultant for two of Isler & Co.’s client firms that needed additional professional expertise. Both clients were manufacturing operations using QuickBooks Pro. One was a multi-state manufacturing company with a large staff, and the other was a smaller manufacturing concern with a one-person accounting office.

 

I was able to do all the kinds of work I had expected, and found that I was asked to do additional projects as well. I not only helped with all the year-end closing procedures for the firms, but I also did special projects that no one in-house had the time or the skills to tackle. For one firm I automated their month-end procedures by consolidating and revising the manual worksheets they were using and putting them into Excel. Both companies needed a cost-allocation system developed to comply with percentage-of-completion accounting rules. The system had to accommodate both tax and financial accounting requirements. These special projects were a wonderful professional challenge, different than my usual challenge of creating good curriculum.

 

 

 

2. What did I learn?

Working in several different accounting offices contributed to my growth as an accountant and as a teacher of accounting. Working in conjunction with the Isler partner in charge of the accounting for those firms exposed me to the most current practices in the field and allowed me the intellectual pleasure of working with other CPAs on challenging projects. Working in the offices of the clients exposed me to specific situations that I am already drawing on to create the best possible projects and simulations for students in our program.

 

3. How was this activity valuable to the college? 

I am much more confident about the necessary outcomes of our accounting program. My observations and experiences in the field have given me first-hand knowledge of what is needed in the work world. I can draw on my experiences to provide assurance that our program outcomes are appropriate and sufficient. Working in several different kinds of business, I observed the skills and abilities that are required for entry level and more senior bookkeepers. Other office staff members also get called in now and then to do bookkeeping tasks, so some basic skills in accounting are useful for all of our business graduates.

 

5. Sharing my experience:

We are currently in the process of redesigning our core curriculum for administrative assistants and bookkeepers. My observations from the field are being shared in detail with other faculty involved in the accounting program. A more general description of my experience in the business community is proving useful to the related programs of administrative assistant and e-commerce. An enthusiastic endorsement of the experience of professional renewal itself might be useful to any faculty member.

 

Conclusion:

Good for students:

The work that I accomplished on my sabbatical leave will help me make the accounting program and associated classes better. I can create more up-to-date and accurate curriculum activities, course projects, and assignments. This will not only directly affect the quality of the learning experience for students, but will also better prepare them for the current accounting work environment.

 

Good for my department:

I am a better resource person for development of curriculum in the general business area and in the area of accounting. 

 

Good for me:

I have returned to the college with renewed energy and enthusiasm, both for my professional area of accounting and for teaching. I am very grateful to have had such a wonderful opportunity for professional growth and renewal.