PC Accounting Students Take National Title

PC Accounting Students Take National Title

A team of students from Providence College has won the 2011 xTREME Accounting (xACT) national competition and the competition’s Montgomery Award, a Tiffany silver cup named after Robert Montgomery, who wrote the first American book on the practice of accounting.

The five-member student team represented the College at the xACT finals on January 8 and 9 in New York City. This was PC’s second national finals appearance in its seven-year history of participating in xACT and its first win. Each student, along with the team’s faculty mentor, received a replica of the Tiffany silver cup.

Better than basketball

“This is like our basketball team winning the national championship. This is unbelievable! To have them go down there and win is just incredible,” said Dr. Patrick T. Kelly, associate professor of accountancy and department chair, “The competition is outstanding at xACT, but I’ve always said that we can compete with anyone nationally, and this proves it.”

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The PC team, dubbed “The Consolidators,” was led by Ann C. Montemarano ’12 (Malverne, N.Y.), and included David J. Glaser ’13 (Westborough, Mass.), Vincent A. Travelyn ’13 (North Scituate, R.I.), Amanda P. Medeiros ’14 (Fall River, Mass.), and Philip M. Pin ’14 (Wilbraham, Mass.). The team was coached by faculty mentor Christine Earley, professor of accountancy, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) mentor Robert L. Burkhart ’04.

The challenge

This year, the College’s team had to decide whether a fictitious company in the cosmetics industry should develop its own line of natural and organic cosmetics, or acquire a company that already manufactured such products.

“The students gave a ‘flawless’ presentation,” Earley said, adding, “One judge said that the competition was close, but the choice was clear.”   

PC competed against four other schools – the University of California - Berkeley, the University of Texas, the University of Washington, and Villanova University. The finalists were chosen by a PwC national review committee following individual campus presentations in November. 

About xACT

xACT is a collegiate competition designed to provide students with educational, career-oriented, and networking opportunities. These include learning about high-level accounting and business practices and the accounting profession itself; nurturing critical thinking and communication skills; working in a collaborative environment; and interacting with members of the profession.

The competition is sponsored by global accounting and auditing giant PwC.