STUDENT DEVELOPMENT, ENGAGEMENT, & ACHIEVEMENTS

Engaging Introductory Accounting Students

Professor John Estall motivates his students by incorporating a semesterlong project into his introductory financial accounting course. The project consists of successive stages and concludes with a presentation to a CPA firm by each group at the end of the term.

Students initiate the project through identifying a new company and drafting an introduction of the business. This is followed by the creation of simple, first year financial statements. As the semester progresses, the students prepare and post more challenging journal entries—adjusting and closing entries—and prepare more detailed financial statements. Towards the end of the semester, students analyze the business using financial statement ratios and make determinations on the company’s performance. The semester long project concludes with a PowerPoint presentation of the financial information of their company. This includes the description of the business, both income statements, all three balance sheets and the ratio analysis. The groups presented their projects to CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA) in Mankato on April 26th. A special thank you to CLA for their continued partnership in this dynamic learning experience.