Thirty years ago, a group of FIU School of Accounting students came together to establish a chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, the honor society for accounting, finance and information systems. Several decades later, the college warmly welcomed back over 100 of those who made Beta Alpha Psi part of their FIU experience. The June event featured meet-ups with old friends and current colleagues, catch-ups with favorite professors and introductions to student members of today’s chapter.
Lester Law, who was president of the first FIU Beta Alpha Psi board in 1986, explained that a small group of students worked on starting the honor society’s FIU chapter, known as Eta Iota, for about three years. Said fellow founding member Laura Pedre: “We thought it would be great to have a chapter. I knew it would be a stepping stone to a great career, and it was.”
For alumni attending the reunion, it was all about reconnection.
“I haven’t been here (FIU) for a very long time,” said Cristy Rubio, who earned both an undergraduate accounting degree and master’s in tax from FIU and now works at Millares & Company, Inc., a Coral Gables CPA firm. Seeing friends brought back reasons for joining Beta Alpha Psi. “It exposed me to a lot – I learned about how networking and relationships matter to one’s career,” she said.
Also greeting attendees was College of Business Acting Dean Jose M. Aldrich, who was a founding member of the University of Miami Beta Alpha Psi chapter in 1972, and Ruth Ann McEwen, senior associate dean of the college and director of the School of Accounting.
Rebecca Priegues Sproul was on the FIU Beta Alpha Psi board in 1992, and has both undergraduate and graduate degrees from FIU. She is now audit partner at KPMG. “I always think it’s great to reconnect with folks you shared such a great experience with, people you were in the trenches with,” she said.
The event was organized by Desiree Elias, a School of Accounting faculty member and its alumni advisor. An alumna of FIU’s undergraduate and graduate programs, she organized the chapter’s 10-year alumni reunion as a student member and subsequent reunions as a faculty member. “It was great to see people reconnect,” she said. “In fact, many alumni thought that we should have reunions annually, and that was the best feedback possible.”
