Gift to create international accounting program

A six-figure gift from Big Four firm EY's Seattle office – which includes two partners who are Western Washington University alumni – is establishing an internationally focused program for the university’s accounting department and cementing a long-standing relationship between EY and Western. The firm’s $75,000 gift will be enhanced with a 100-percent match by the EY Foundation for a total gift, appropriately entrepreneurial in spirit, of $150,000.

The EY Global Mindset Immersion Program is on track to start later this summer as an immersive, four-week course with two preparatory weeks on campus and two weeks working abroad. While it emphasizes experiential learning for both faculty and students, the ultimate goal is to provide Western accounting students with a taste of the practical – and international – experience required for their professional lives.

“This will become an important piece of what we do,” says George Sanders, chair of the accounting department. “EY is one of the largest international accounting services – they have operations all over the world – and they like recruiting our students. We’ve been aware for a long time that Washington state has global presence and we’ve wanted to have a way to give our students exposure to the international business scene. The faculty is excited, and the students are excited. It’s a wonderful opportunity.”

At a special event dedicating the newly-named EY Global Center in Western’s Parks Hall on April 24, WWU president Bruce Shepard noted: “We are celebrating a partnership that builds on Western’s distinctive strengths and EY’s leadership vision to provide real learning opportunities for our students and better prepare them for the new professional world. We know that people already wait in line to hire our alumni; with EY’s help, those lines are going to be even longer.

“In the decades ahead we will continue to prepare the best accounting students because of partnerships with firms like EY who see their obligations to help us prepare the kind of graduates who are needed here in our state and abroad. And of course, they reap the benefits as well, counting great Western alumni like Scot among their employees.”

“We wanted to offer something that was global in nature,” agrees Scot Studebaker, EY partner, WWU alum and a key advisor to the accounting department and WWU’s College of Business and Economics since 2001.

Currently, Studebaker sits on the College’s Accounting Advisory Board and chairs the Dean’s Advisory Board; he and fellow EY partner Mark Mathewson also mentor students and volunteer at Western in other capacities.

“We do a lot of things for Western, but this is a great opportunity to have a game-changer and provide something different to the school. Being a global firm is core to what we do; it’s important to us for students to have a broad international experience.”

Make use of this opportunity, Studebaker told the accounting students gathered at the EY Global Center dedication ceremony.

“We did this for you. EY does benefit from this but it’s primarily for you. We want you to have solid resumes, great experiences, the confidence to come talk to us when EY – as well as other firms – come to campus to hire you. We want you to be competitive with others. And we think this is just the catalyst: we hope this is a framework to get things started so other companies will invest in and create similar types of programs here in the future and give all of you more and more opportunities. My advice to you is to take advantage of it, if not this program another program, but push for these types of opportunities. It gives you more to draw on as you develop through your career. Thank you for allowing us to do this for you.”

For more information on the EY gift or the EY Global Mindset Immersion Program, contact Accounting Department Chair George Sanders at 360-650-4811.