Things looked a little different this year …
Like many things in this crazy world, our Student Leadership Academy looked a little different this year. Instead of shaking hands and meet-and-greets, there were Zoom breakouts and chat boxes.
The MACPA team held out hope for a long time that we would be able to have our sixth annual Student Leadership Academy live and in-person. We even rescheduled the date a couple of times before deciding we had to cancel the program and / or change how the content was going to be delivered.
After some brainstorming, the Future CPA Leadership Series was born, fulfilling our desire to still connect with the future of the profession and empower their ability to be their best selves in their journeys to becoming CPAs. With the change in the program, we:
- maintained the content from previous years;
- eliminated the need for applications and opened it up to any and all;
- offered flexibility by being able to attend one or all of the sessions;
- utilized an online forum for attendee connection before, during, and after the event; and
- delivered the program in bite-sized sessions over multiple days to eliminate the dreaded Zoom fatigue.
Our hope was that if we would build it, they would come — and the students did just that from inside and outside Maryland!
We are happy to report the program yielded an average of 20 students in each of the sessions, which featured life-changing speakers like Kimberly Ellison Taylor, Tom Hood and Kelly Pope, MACPA champions who were engaged and ready to share and guide, and incredible sponsors. We couldn’t have pulled this program off without some incredibly flexible speakers, students, staff, and these ever-so supportive sponsors:
Thank you to all who attended, supported, rallied, and participated in this year’s event. With student testimonials like the one below, I’m not sure anything will stop us next year … but let’s keep our fingers crossed it will be in-person, we all can hang up our masks and put on some of MACPA’s Future CPA T-shirts.
“It was a great experience getting to hear from and speak with CPAs from multiple backgrounds and industries to emphasize how limitless the certification is. I am now more set and determined than ever to become a CPA!”
Everyone stay safe and well!