203164_VT Acct_Alumni NL _Fall23.indd

Scott Hobbs (at left) in front of Kansai Gaidai University, and Satoka Mitsuhashi at the Virginia Tech Global Education Office. Photos courtesy of Scott Hobbs and Theo Figurasin

In the same vein, Hobbs described his experiences in a near by onsen, or public hot spring bathhouse, where he and his Western friends had to get used to a different culture of open ness and bodily comfort. But Virginia Tech’s exchange program doesn’t just expose cul tural differences and contradictions. It also creates opportu nities to examine our commonalities across differences. Both Hobbs and Mitsuhashi described their initial challenges, fears,

and loneliness upon arriving at their destination, and the solu tion to overcoming them was the same: community. When asked what they would miss the most, they both re sponded with fondness about the people and connections they built in their host countries and their excitement to continue traveling internationally. By Rich Mathieson

New ACIS Courses Offered During 2023-24 The ACIS Department will be introducing two new courses during the 2023-2024 academic year. The first new course is ACIS 4364 Taxation of Business Operations/ACIS 5064 Taxation of Business Operations & Advanced Income Tax and will introduce students to tax issues for various operating models such as partnerships, S Corporations, regular (C) Corporations and not for profit entities. The class will also give students an initial exposure to multistate taxation, the U.S. taxation of non-US activities, and estate and gift taxation. The other new course being taught is ACIS 4664 Environmental, Social, and Governance Accounting/ACIS 5664 Environmental, Social and GovernanceAccounting and will introduce students to procedures for extracting and quantifying quality of corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) information and assessment of compliance with current accounting standards. In addition, it will also cover disclosure components, frameworks, and standards concerning accounting and business-related ESG information. Both new course offerings fit into the ACIS elective category and students will be strongly encouraged to take both of them if they are planning to sit for the CPA exam. ACIS 4364 will be taught by Professor Don Compton and ACIS 4664 course will be taught by Dr. Jack Maher. Both of these courses are conjoined courses that will also be taught at the graduate level.

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