News
Students aced the ACED Experience!
July 11, 2024
The 2024 ACED Camp was sponsored by GVSU, BDO, Crowe, Plante Moran, Deloitte, Ey, PwC, Baker Holtz, Dan Carter Advisors, DoerenMayhew, EHTC, Hungerford, UHY, Chaco, and Wolverine Worldwide.
Day 1. The goal for this day was to get campers checked in and acclimated and to start getting to know each other. We played a photo scavenger hunt using the Goosechase app, had dinner in a dining hall, made smores while asking the counselors questions about college, played yard games, and settled into the dorm rooms for the night. Several campers came with friends, but many did not. It was fun watching them meet new friends and immediately begin looking out for each other.
Day 2. This busy day started with a presentation on admissions and financial aid followed by a tour of the Allendale campus. After the tour, students engaged in their first financial accounting lesson centered on starting a food truck business. They also spoke with an actual food truck owner (and GV alum), Cesar from Casa de Los Abuelos in a courtyard outside of Niemeyer before he served us our lunch. After lunch, the campers engaged in their first managerial accounting lesson, which was also centered around owning and operating a food truck. The campers actively participated in discussions and identified different business activities (financing, investing, and operating). They learned about the costs associated with running the business and the decisions that come with that. The food truck was sponsored by Crowe, and we were fortunate to have two members from the firm join us for both accounting lessons and lunch!
After the food truck activities, we moved into an improv workshop led by the Comedy Project. The intention was to emphasize skills not only important in accounting but in life – trust, communication, collaboration, etc. The improv workshop was sponsored by Deloitte, and we appreciate the 7 members from the firm who joined us for the workshop and built upon the relevant skills and their relation to careers in accounting.
The campers finished the day with dinner at the dining hall on campus and a movie night.
Day 3. As some days do, this day began with a few challenges from Mother Nature, but the counselors adapted quickly to avoid everyone getting soaked! After breakfast at Kleiner, the students boarded a bus and headed to Rockford to visit the ReChaco factory. They were greeted by members of the Chaco team and Janice Tennant, President of the Merrell and Chaco brands. Janice is a woman of color and shared her educational background and career journey. She also spoke about the role that accounting and finance play at Wolverine Worldwide and shared a list of 10 traits she looks for in a finance partner (accounting and finance are combined at WWW and referred to as finance). The campers designed their own custom pair of Chaco sandals and watched them being made during the factory tour. The tour ended with a phenomenal game of The Price Is Right centered around the costs of Chaco's business. Chaco created this game specifically for us!
We ate a pizza and froyo lunch on the front lawn of Chaco before boarding the bus to head to Grand Rapids to visit the BDO office. Campers enjoyed the office tour, seeing cubicles and board rooms “just like in the movies”. The BDO team also shared interactive presentations on what accounting is and is not, and the importance of interpersonal skills and networking. They had a chance to practice their networking skills through a speed round with several professional accountants from BDO. Our visit concluded with a Q&A panel of 2 tax and 2 audit professionals from the firm. Many questions were asked!
After the visit, the campers got back on the bus and headed to the Pew Campus where an awesome associate dean gave them a guided tour of the campus. Following the tour, the students participated in an ACED T-shirt Shop simulation. They customized their own ACED camp t-shirt and tracked the cost of their product. We emphasized that product costs don’t only include materials, but also labor and other overhead costs. They used the product costing information to set a selling price for their shirt to obtain a target profit. As we wrapped up the t-shirt activity, we were joined by 5 representatives from PwC who sponsored a catered dinner in the forum at Seidman.
The campers boarded the bus around 7 pm to head back to Allendale for their last night in the dorms. It was a long, action-packed day!
Day 4. The last day started with students checking out of their dorm rooms and having their final meal in the dining hall on campus. Donning their custom ACED t-shirts, the campers boarded the bus to visit the Plante Moran office in Grand Rapids where they toured the newly renovated office and learned about the various professional services that the firm offers such as tax, audit, forensic audit, valuation, and other consulting services. Plante Moran kept it entertaining with a game of word bingo where students marked words they heard either during the presentations, or that prompted questions they could ask to help fill their cards. Questions earned the campers tickets which increased their chances of winning the raffle.
After the Plante visit, campers headed back to the Pew Campus for a dining etiquette lunch led by Cindy Brown. Two representatives from the firm joined us in the Regency Room at DeVos for the delicious lunch sponsored by EY, allowing students to ask any lingering questions about the profession.
After lunch, campers boarded the bus one last time and returned to Allendale where they shopped at the Laker Store for GV merch and wrote thank you notes to the generous sponsors and hosts from the past 4 days. This provided a great opportunity to give them their Chaco sandals. They were excited to see them and try them on. Many wore them for the rest of the day!
We returned to Niemeyer for some final Q&A and reflection in the classroom. The campers were sad to leave, and several suggested that the camp should be 5 days not just 4! Before heading home, we played one more round of Improv activities that we learned from the Comedy Project – using “Yes, and…” to share memories from specific camp activities and to ask the Oracle some silly questions, including “Who is the best counselor?” and “Who is the best professor?” Many campers shared hugs and contact info before departing, with promises to attend the camp again next year.
A HUGE thank you to the entire ACED Committee who worked very hard and provided countless hours of service to make the camp happen! We also need to acknowledge our awesome counselors (accounting students) who worked at the camp around the clock. The campers had nothing but positive feedback on our counselors and many requested that they return next year! (We had several campers ask if they could come again!!) If you see any of these counselors in your classes or on campus next semester, please acknowledge their contributions: (from left to right) Rachel Hoskins, Cody Krause, Nicole Hafner, Jimmy Rozycki, and Nakya Ulusse.
“I am really excited to study accounting and am starting to feel a passion for it…I had always thought that it is just numbers and the typical stereotypes that surround accounting just aren’t true which is what really excited me about accounting.” ~ Student, East Kentwood high school