A Student Threepeat

A Student Threepeat
J eanette Maier-Lytle and her team of talented young CPAs-to-be from the University of Southern Indiana set a new record in achievement by winning the state CPA society’s Case Study Competition for the third year in a row. The threepeat performance—by this year’s team of seniors May Flores, John Hayden, Adam Knepp and junior Amy Oglesby—offered up a 63-page report on peer review put together in just 10 days. It suggested using a peer review certification process similar to the ISO 9000 quality standard of manufacturing companies. Firms certified in this way could go through peer review every five years instead of every three.

Maier-Lytle says practicing the presentation in front of her fellow professors and the local Kemper CPA Group helped sharpen and prepare the team. Flores, a second-year team member who’s already been hired by KPMG, says her membership in Toastmasters also gave her an edge. The students told the JofA the experience taught them to work as a team under strict time pressures—a lesson that no doubt will come in handy around tax time next year.

—Cheryl Rosen