DailyMississippian The
Monday, January 23, 2012
thedmonline.com
Vol. 100 No. 232
UM to be well represented in Teach For America BY JACOB BATTE thedmnews@gmail.com
PHILLIP WALLER | The Daily Mississippian
Senior Taylor McGraw works with a student during a trip sponsored by Mississippi First. McGraw has accepted an offer to work for Teach For America and will serve in New York.
As education continues to be a hot topic in debates around the country, four University of Mississippi students will do what they can to improve low-budget schools in struggling areas for the next two academic years. Mary Alex Street, Caleb Herod, Cortez Moss and Taylor McGraw have each been offered and accepted positions with the 2012 Teach For America Corps (TFA). Street, who was crowned Miss Ole Miss this past semester, mentioned how her experiences growing up in various public schools in Mississippi spurred her interest in public education. Street attended public high school in both Jackson and Oxford. “When I was a senior I was able to look back and recognize how unfair it was,” Street said. “Just because these kids live within a certain Jackson zipcode means that they have to go to a really terrible public school whereas every kid in Oxford gets an incredible public school experience.”
Street said she heard about TFA through friends and family then applied for a TFA internship as a recruiter at Ole Miss. Moss became interested in TFA during his internship with Mississippi First. “I think what interested me most in the program was its interest and drive to educate kids in poverty and help them understand that there is also a way out,” he said. “I feel like in so many ways that I had an obligation to give back to the state of Mississippi.” Herod, Associated Student Body chief of staff, said he had seen older friends apply and thought it would help prepare for life after college. The interview process for TFA is a rigorous one, with an online application followed by an interview process, which was held at Rhodes College. This process includes a one-on-one interview and a group interview, with separate activities included along each step of the way. Moss said the toughest part of See TEACH, PAGE 5
Ole Miss accountancy program rises in rankings BY KATHRYN WINTER kathryn.winter2011@gmail.com
The undergraduate accountancy program at the University of Mississippi was recently ranked No. 10 in the nation among public universities by the Public Accounting Report. The Patterson School of Accountancy was also ranked No. 11 for its master’s degree program and no. 12 its the doctoral program. Ole Miss was not the only SEC school to slide up in the ranks, as Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Tennessee are also in the top 30; however, Ole Miss was the only one to slide into the top 10. Dean Mark Wilder said the new ranking will help recruit students and faculty in the coming years. “We’ve been nationallyranked seven years in a row — this is the highest ranking we’ve ever received,” he said. “Our undergraduate program, our master’s program and our Ph.D. program have the highest rankings we’ve ever had.” Ole Miss has been one of the first 40 accounting programs in the country to receive separate accounting accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business
INFOGRAPHIC BY KELSEY DOCKERY | The Daily Mississippian
(AACSB), which Wilder said has given the program prominence. Another factor that has contributed to the program’s rise through the rankings can be attributed to the largest accounting library in the world, which is housed at the university. The National Library Accounting Profession has been housed in the J.D. Williams Library for the past 10 years. “I don’t know if there is any one thing that we’ve been doing differently,” Wilder said.
“We’ve had tradition for a long, long time, being studentcentered and being very teaching-oriented. Four of the schools’ faculty memebers have won the highest teaching award given at Ole Miss, the LCM Hood Outstanding Teacher Award. Justin Wallace, from Byrum, Miss., is a graduate student earning his master’s in accountancy. “I definitely feel prepared for after graduation,” he said. “One of the great things about our program is we have an in-
ternship program built in to the curriculum, and last spring I interned in Dallas, Texas, at an accounting firm there.” Wallace, who was offered a job at the same firm, said having a job secured before graduation relieves a lot of the pressure students face as they prepare to walk in the Grove for the last time as a student. “Almost all of my friends in the accounting program have jobs to go to whenever they’re finished with their degree,” he said. With the recent upgrade in
rankings and the graduate success, Wilder said the faculty at the Patterson School of Accountancy is in great shape. “A couple of our faculty have published in the number one academic accounting journal,” Wilder said. “It seems like over the past few years, the world and the country has learned what we knew all along – that we have a top notch accounting program here, and then we’ve built upon that with some of the successes of our See ACCOUNTING, PAGE 4