‘Superior’ Status

Accounting major leads by example in Beta Alpha Psi

BY DREW LYON

Following her transfer to Minnesota State Mankato in January 2022, Lauren Reuter sought to join campus programs to help grow her leadership credentials. She found the right fit while attending the Student Engagement Fair in the College of Business.

“I was looking for a group of students to meet people and to get involved,” says Reuter, a Mankato native and accounting major. “I stumbled across the Beta Alpha Psi booth and decided to join.”

Reuter pledged and joined Beta Alpha Psi (BAP), an honors fraternity established nationally in 1919. The club’s Mankato chapter was founded in 2017 under the direction of Kirsten Rosacker, Ph.D., and remains the lone active BAP organization in Minnesota.

Though membership numbers fluctuate because many BAP students are interning throughout the academic year, the stalwart recruiting efforts of faculty advisor Sean Fingland brought more than 20 COB students into BAP by early 2023.

“This is an organization that is more than your typical student organization in that we not only have speakers, but we have expectations from an internal and national society that we get involved,” says Fingland, who joined BAP in the late 1990s as a student at Missouri State University. “We’re trying to broaden students’ skillset.” BAP encourages students to commit to the University, Greater Mankato region and their peers through a series of professional activities that help Minnesota State Mankato’s BAP chapter maintain its “Superior Chapter” status (Fingland hopes his chapter can take the next step by earning “Distinguished” status).

Each fall, students hold a Meet the Firms event with the College of Business and Accounting Club to connect students with area businesses.

“The students who I talk with, the biggest part (of BAP) is the community you get with it,” says Fingland, an assistant professor of accounting. “Yes, you make connections and those ‘soft skills,’ but you build that community of relationships and friendships.”

Creating a network

Aidan Ryan, a finance major studying under Fingland, was another transfer student who found real-world value in the program once he arrived on campus and found his way to BAP. All he needed, he says, was a little nudge. Now, Ryan is all-in on BAP. As vice president of membership, he’s tasked with recruiting and training pledges.

“I took the bait and I’m very glad I did,” he says. “There’s a lot of professional and personal development from being in this organization. It also gives us the ability to practice leadership skills and mentor some of the people who are coming into the club and interact with them as a whole. It’s a pretty unique experience.”

In their leadership roles, Ryan and Reuter are sharing their knowledge. Ryan speaks to upper-level finance and accounting classes to promote BAP, while Vice President of Service Reuter helps coordinate community and volunteer involvement.

‘Top-shelf students’

BAP members usually meet during the academic year for an hour each Thursday in Morris Hall. The meetings attract speakers from regional businesses (usually accounting and financial firms), including Eide Bailly, Federated Insurance, Compeer Financial, and Ameriprise.

“Firms are lining up to join our meeting because they want access to our students,” Fingland says.

BAP gives back in myriad ways. During the 2022-23 academic year, as part of a community service project, 10 BAP students volunteered at Ivy House, a New Ulm-based crisis nursery. Students visited the nonprofit facility to compile and quantify its supplies, including diapers, baby formula, toys, etc. In four hours, stu- dents audited about $25,000 of materials and later presented their inventory findings to the Ivy House Board of Directors.

Abdo, a Mankato-based accounting firm, is a top BAP sponsor and donated $10,000 for students to attend BAP’s 2023 conferences in Milwaukee and Las Vegas. At the Milwaukee 2023 Mid-Year Meeting, Ryan and Reuter delivered a “Best Practices” presentation spotlighting the group’s service activities with Ivy House.

“I’ll be interested in two, three years down the road in seeing what comes of these students as they come back for Meet the Firm Events and we hear of their experiences,” he says.

To pledge to join Beta Alpha Psi, students pay a $100 lifetime fee and must maintain a 3.0 GPA or a 3.25 in their last 30 credits, along with pursuing degrees in accounting, finance or information technology.

Scholarship opportunities are also available for students with financial hardship. To learn more, contact BAP Faculty Advisor Sean Fingland at sean.fingland@mnsu.edu.