Well, it’s here. Senior year with only a few months until graduation. It seems pretty unbelievable. I’ve loved being here at Covenant, and I wouldn’t trade my four years here for the world. But I’m definitely ready for the next stage of life. Let me rephrase that – i’m looking forward to the next stage of life. Whether or not i’m ready is a different question.

I’m taking a full load this semester – 20 credits. Here is a little bit of an overview of the courses i’m taking, for anyone who’s interested.

• Industrial Organization (ECO 330 – class on corporations/firms and how they interact with each other in the economy)
• Strategic Management (BUS 400 – discussing the differences between operational decisions and strategic decisions for higher management in various corporations and how those decisions affect those firms)
• Human Resource Management (BUS 320 – reaffirming people as a firm’s most valuable resource and how to manage them within a large corporation; work-life balance)
• Auditing (ACC 410 – discussing the details and processes involved with auditing a firm’s financial statements and internal controls; GAAP regulations and SOX compliance; Gleim CPA review)
• Corporate Financial Management (FIN 345 – the second semester of Corporate Finance; dealing with detailed discussions of how any given firm manages their assets, liabilities, and owner’s equity; creativity in financial management)
• Senior Integration Paper (SIP – BUS 492 – my topic is “Corporate Ethics and Values: Ethical Decision-Making for Management Accounting”; 25-30 page research paper)
• Advanced Accounting (ACC 4022 – through LSU correspondence, issues with mergers and acquisitions, governmental and international accounting, etc.)

For May term, I’m heading up to New York City with my accounting professor, Chris Dodson, and about 7 other business/finance students. Dodson is teaching an investments course to us, along with visits to many of the major investment, banking, and financial firms in the greater New York/D.C. area – hopefully the New York Stock Exchange, Goldman Sachs, the Deutsche Bank, the Federal Reserve Bank, Ernst and Young Headquarters, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, etc.

So it’s the weekend before finals hit with full-force. It’s not been a very enjoyable time of the semester. In fact, of the 7 semesters that I’ve been here so far, this has been probably the most pressured and intense final’s week i’ve had.  With 6 finals crammed into 3 days, it’s taken a lot of preparation to manage my time and figure out what to study and when to study it. I’m trying to prioritize, while still spending adequate time on each course. Prayer would be great – for confidence, diligence, and a clear, focused mind for the last stretch. After wednesday afternoon at 4:00 p.m., I could care less at what  capacity my brain is functioning at. Until then, it’s crunch time.

This week has been incredibly stressful and busy. I’m only a few hours away now from being home for fall break. I cannot wait. I spent a lot of time this week working on a project for Accounting Information Systems – a lot of frustrating and stressful time. Somehow, my partner and I managed to overlook a simple detail of backing up the files we’ve been working on – a process that takes all of 30 seconds to do. Halfway through the entire project, we realized we should have been restoring our backups after every chapter rather than building on the files with every chapter. Five chapters later, I spent a very long and frustrating day (somewhere in the range of 8-10 hours) working on back-tracking, fixing the problem, and redoing a whole lot of time-consuming work… all because of a glitch that would have taken 30 seconds to take care of. Needless to say, I’ve learned some key life lessons this week.

And also needless to say, I’m extremely ready to be home with my family for a few days. Aside from spending time relaxing and sleeping, I don’t plan on doing a lot over break. I’m excited to see my brother and sister-in-law, along with my little niece.

As part of the business major and accounting concentration, I’m taking a course right now called Accounting Information Systems (AIS). Essentially, the objective of the course is to teach students how to use the various computerized (and paper) systems used by accounting firms and companies. For the first quarter of the semester, we’ve been going through a paper system – namely to understand all the functions and parts of how the system works. Obviously, most companies have computer systems that perform the vast majority of what we’re doing… but being able to have a fundamental understanding of the processes involved is important. The system we’re using (and finishing) now is called the Systems Understanding Aid – essentially, we’re given a “virtual” company and required to do a month’s worth of transactions for the company (involving invoices, receiving reports, purchase orders, checks, bill of ladings, freight-in orders, remittance advices, sales orders, and numerous other reports), perform all the month-end procedures (adjusting trial balances, performing adjustments, recording everything in the general journal and posting to the general ledger), and finally to do all the year-end procedures of the company (financial statements, closing entries, post-closing trial balances, etc).

It’s been a really good course to take because it integrates everything that I’ve learned in all my accounting courses by using a virtual company as a specific example. The whole project is due this Thursday and then we’re moving on to Peachtree – a popular computerized accounting system.

So it’s a pretty enormous wake-up call when you get a green form in your mailbox that’s entitled “Graduation Application.” First of all, I didn’t even know you had to apply to graduate. I figured that after four years of wandering around campus they’d just automatically kick you off. Secondly, that means I’m a senior.. which is really scary. Time has flown by. My older brothers and sisters, as well as my parents, always told me it would.. I guess I just never really believed them.  I started writing this blog while I was still in the first semester of my freshman year. November 2006, to be precise. Some 33 months later and I’m still here writing..

I’m taking a fairly heavy load this semester. Eighteen credits – Accounting Information Systems, Principles of Finance, Personal Finance, Business Ethics, Organizational Behavior, and U.S. History to 1877. I’m also doing 15 hours a week of work study for Dr. Kapic. He’s one of our Biblical and Theological Studies professors and is currently on sabbatical this semester. I’m doing independent research for him for a devotional book that he is co-authoring. I started today, and that will most definitely keep me occupied.. And of course, I will be doing my best  to keep my few faithful readers updated every once and a while..

I’ve got my second test in Intermediate Accounting 2 tomorrow – and I’m pretty sure that it’s going to be the hardest test of my college career. It’s covering bonds, notes, leases, and accounting for income taxes. Got to love it.

Professor Dodson, my accounting professor and a CPA, emailed me and some of my fellow classmates today with an encouraging word about job security for future accounting professions. Here is a snippet of the article that he sent to us.

Demand for Accountants to Remain Strong in 2009

Despite the current recession, demand for accountants remains strong. Although a number of industries are cutting back, the accounting industry projects jobs to maintain at their current rate or possibly increase. In fact, the 2008 Trends in the Supply of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), 91% percent of accounting firms expect hiring to remain steady or increase. And as the New Year begins, the role of accountants continues to expand along with employment opportunities. Today accountants and their clients are facing increasing regulatory complexity, the need for specialization, the globalization of businesses and shifting demographics. According to AccountingWeb.com, “Given the heightened regulatory environment in which we operate, mastery over the hard skills of being a Certified Public Accountant is more important than ever before.

I’ve been studying all day for my tax test tomorrow.. it’s the first one of the semester, and it’s worth 45% of our class grade. Talk about exciting! I LOVE taking tests that count for virtually half of my total grade…

On a different note, Campus Preview Weekend is this weekend from March 26th – March 28th! It’s about that time again. It’s going to be a busy weekend. After this test tomorrow afternoon, I’ve got a 5 page paper to write by Friday morning. Tomorrow night is going to be a late one.

Spring Banquet is this Saturday… definitely something I’m looking forward to!

Do you ever have a whole lot on your mind, and you can’t really stop thinking… but when someone asks you what you’re thinking about, it’s like, “Uh.. uh.. umm… not sure?”

That’s me right now. Just thought i’d share. And I’m taking a break from writing a 6 page Marketing case study that’s due Wednesday.

Our Honda presentation went really well this morning! It was a 45 minute in-class presentation on Honda Motor Company as a Marketing success story. We gave a presentation on their history, a vast array of their products, and then concluded with suggestions and advice for how Honda could continue being a success in their industry. I had fun doing it.. it was definitely a lot of work, but I felt like we did a really good job on it.

I’m ready for the weekend now.. :)