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On September 18, 2019, the IUP Eberly College of Business and Information Technology’s Student Accounting Association, in collaboration with the IUP Career and Professional Development Center, held its annual SAA Career Day at the Rustic Lodge in Indiana, ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø. Sarah Zbur, a 2017 IUP accounting alumnus and senior associate with KPMG, served as the keynote speaker during the Career Day lunch.

Zbur urged students to get actively involved in student organizations, especially the SAA, during college and to network with as many professionals as possible.

Professionals from the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Office of the Budget discuss career opportunities with Larry Jones, the SAA Resume Book chair.

Career Day is a career fair geared toward all accounting majors, freshmen through graduate students; finance majors are also invited. A total of 77 professionals from 38 organizations (tying last year’s record), and 131 IUP students and 71 students from surrounding universities participated. The organizations included 19 public accounting firms, six graduate schools, six financial services companies, four government agencies, a CPA review firm, a healthcare company, and the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Institutes of CPAs. Accounting and safety sciences are the only majors at IUP that host their own career fair every year.

The SAA’s Career Day is organized into three segments: a two-hour morning session open only to IUP students, a 90-minute buffet-style lunch, and a two-hour afternoon session open to both IUP students and accounting students from surrounding universities.

Professionals from Maher Duessel participated in Career Day: Stacy Vernier, firm administrator, and Amy Lewis (’00), stakeholder.

In addition to the 77 professionals, 74 accounting majors and 14 IUP faculty and administrators attended the lunch held at the Rustic Lodge. Each student was seated at a table with three to five accounting professionals. Kaitlin Albright, SAA vice president, welcomed everyone before the buffet lunch. Following the lunch, SAA Career Day chair, Samantha Adams, introduced the keynote speaker, Sarah Zbur.

Zbur graduated from IUP in May 2017 with a bachelor of science degree with 150 credits with a major in accounting and a minor in applied statistics and economics. She was an active member of the SAA, serving as the 2015 Resume Book chair and 2016 vice president. She was also involved in Phi Gamma Nu business fraternity, served on the S&T Bank Student Advisory Council, and completed the Business Honors Program. She also passed all four parts of the CPA exam on her first attempt soon after she graduated from IUP.

Four professionals, all IUP accounting alumni, attended the SAA Caeer Day: Sarah Zbur (’17), senior audit associate; Anthony Maticic (’19), audit associate; Quinn Cunningham (’17), audit associate, and Alicia Fulmer (’15), senior audit associate.

Zbur completed a 2016 summer internship with KPMG in their Pittsburgh office, joined them as an audit associate in October 2017, and was promoted to senior audit associate in July of this year. Zbur stressed the importance of involvement in student organizations and networking with professionals while in college. She attributed much of her success in landing her job with KPMG to networking through her involvement in the SAA.

SAA president Matthew DeCesare concluded the lunch by thanking everyone for participating in this important SAA event. He recognized the Career Day Gold Sponsor, Maillie LLP, a regional public accounting firm located near Philadelphia whose managing partner, Robert Caruso, is a 1978 IUP accounting alumnus.

Maillie, a regional public accounting firm in the Philadelphia area, was the Career Day Gold Sponsor. Shown from left to right are: Diane Heyde, human resources partner, Maillie; Kim Anderson, IUP professor of accounting; Robert Caruso (’78), managing partner, Maillie, and Madeline Burns, staff accountant, Maillie.

DeCesare also recognized the efforts of Albright and Adams, the students in charge of helping to organize the event. He also thanked Jan Shellenbarger of IUP’s Career and Professional Development Center and Kim Anderson, the SAA faculty advisor, for organizing the event. He also thanked Larry Jones, the SAA Resume Book chair, for reviewing and compiling over 80 resumes into a book distributed to the recruiters. He concluded by inviting everyone to return to the Rustic Lodge on April 23, 2020, for the annual SAA Recognition Dinner where Ed Hartman ’86, vice president of finance and accounting with Aires, will serve as the keynote speaker.

The 2019 SAA officers include (from left to right) Matthew DeCesare, president; Kelly Kumetis, senior vice president; Kim Anderson, faculty advisor; Kaitlin Albright, vice president, and Jordan Schofield, vice president of finance.