Alumni Newsletter Fall 2021

Beta Alpha Psi President Gives Back Ben is a senior at Virginia Tech majoring in Accounting and Information Systems. In his free time, he enjoys playing, coaching, and watching sports. Currently he participates in intramural sports, with his favorites being basketball and flag football.

shelter guests. At the same time, they worked on setting up policies and procedures to check guests in and out, provide meals and other services, and create a safe community environment. The shelter became operational in late May and typically hosted 80- 100 guests daily. He worked at the shelter 5-6 days a week and his responsibilities ranged from checking guests in and out, feeding guests, coordinating volunteers and donations, cleaning, and fixing tents, and responding to guests’ needs. Over the course of the summer, he worked through many challenges with guests such as drug overdoses, conflicts and altercations, and law enforcement issues; but those challenges came with many successes with guests including guests finding housing, connecting with loved ones, getting job offers, or agreeing to enter rehab. The shelter became a small community where he enjoyed connecting with the guests. One of Ben’s favorite moments during the summer, was when he was talking with one of the shelter guests about the National Basketball Association (NBA). The guest mentioned how he missed watching basketball. This discussion was happening when the NBA championships were being played, so Ben took his laptop to the shelter, hooked it to a monitor, and streamed several of the championship games for the shelter guests. The reaction from the guests was overwhelming and they shared with Ben how much it meant to them. Next spring, Ben will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in ACIS and will be working as an audit intern in the Norfolk office of BDO next summer. Ben’s plan is to return to Virginia Tech for graduate school and pursue a Master of Accounting degree. In his free time, he looks forward to continuing volunteering at the homeless shelter. He noted that his summer experience has taught him the importance of giving back to his local community and helping those in need – lessons he is passionate about carrying with him as he embarks on his accounting career.

Ben was recently elected to the position of President of the Gamma Lambda Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi. In this role, he hopes to continue the strong

Ben Herndon

BAP tradition at VT and support the accounting, finance, and BIT members through networking and service opportunities. Ben’s mother was a BAP officer at JMU in 1990. One of Ben’s passions is helping with homelessness in Norfolk, Virginia. For years, he has volunteered with the Norfolk Emergency Shelter Team (NEST), which is a temporary homeless shelter sponsored by The Urban Renewal Center (URC) that operates in various churches during the Winter months. This spring, The URC worked with the City of Norfolk to extend the homeless shelter concept and set up a year-round program. The head of URC asked Ben to work with them this summer to set up and begin operations of Norfolk’s first city-sponsored year-round homeless shelter. He eagerly accepted the opportunity, and it turned out to be one of the most fulfilling things he has ever participated in. The homeless shelter was set up in an old Greyhound bus station in downtown Norfolk. The URC team and Ben started by building a platform in the parking lot and setting up 80 tents and cots for Meet our MACIS Student Council Our Master of Accounting and Information Systems (MACIS) Student Council’s mission is con- nectivity amongst all MACIS and 152-Hour students. The Council is comprised of a diverse subset of students (pictured to the right) who plan various social events, maintain MACIS student social media accounts, assist with our de- partmental social media accounts, and provide recommendations as to events or actions we can take as a department to meet students’ needs as it relates to connectivity. A recommendation of the MACIS Student Council in years past was a mentorship program. We are excited and incredibly grateful that several of our ACIS Emerg- ing Leaders Board members have agreed to serve as mentors to our MACIS students, beginning this Fall. This mentorship program will be a great opportunity for our students to connect with profes- sionals working in different areas of the accounting profession. We are extremely thankful for the leadership of our MACIS Student Council members.

Front Row (left to right) : Shaina Garg, Yi Wu, Emily Fusaro; Middle Row: Reagan Martin, Lexi Simmers, Josephine Mensah (Chair); Back Row: Will Vaughan, Maria Fernandez Orozco, Zemin Yu, Matthew Griffith

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