Rita Gow

Assistant Professor of Accounting

Now is a great time to be an accounting major.

“There are a world of opportunities in the both the public and private [sectors],” according to Gow.

Gow teaches Accounting I: Introduction to Financial Accounting, Accounting II: Introduction to Managerial Accounting, Intermediate Accounting I and II, Advanced Accounting, Cost Accounting I and II, and Income Tax Accounting I and II.

And the news plays a large role in her classes.

“We talk about the economy every day,” said Gow. “Students bring in articles related to the mortgage crisis and credit crunch and we discuss them in class.”

Gow also brings decades of real-life experience into the classroom having worked for a Fortune 500 company and a public accounting firm (Ernst and Young), not-for-profit organizations including the Susan B. Anthony House (a national historic landmark), and a family-run insurance agency. Her contacts with various CPA firms are often tapped by advisees planning Field Periods.

And Gow’s students garner plenty of their own experience.

“Accounting is problem-based and is meant to be practiced,” said Gow, which is exactly what her accounting students do. Part of that practice comes from completing problems in the textbooks.

“Their accounting lab textbook comes with Flash video animation and tutorial assistance,” she explained. “There’s a section titled ’Help Me Solve It,’ in which they are given a similar problem and walked through it step-by-step. It’s motivating. The students can’t give up this way—it puts the learning responsibility on them.”

In her Income Tax courses, Gow’s students are required to pass the IRS volunteer income tax test—administered through its Web site—“at an advanced level,” said Gow. “That enables them to list ’IRS-certified tax preparer’ on their resumes.”

They also utilize the software used in the industry—Excel, Quickbooks and Peachtree—but practice manually as well.