Loras Accounting Professor honored with Young Professional of the Year Award
The Institute of Management Accounts (IMA) announced Luke Lammer, assistant professor of accounting at Loras College, was one of five to receive the prestigious Young Professional of the Year Award. Winners are chosen for their creative approaches to problem solving, their leadership and contributions to the management accounting profession.
“IMA is pleased to acknowledge the accomplishments of this distinguished group of young professionals, who, even at this early stage of their careers, have achieved considerable success and have given service to the management accounting profession,” said Jenna Uszenski, IMA community engagement leader and staff liaison to the IMA Young Professionals Committee. “We look forward to seeing these professionals’ continued contributions to IMA, and we are confident in their ability to grow as leaders in the profession.”
Lammer was also elected to a three-year term on the board of directors for the Iowa Society of Certified Public Accounts (ISCPA). The Iowa Society of CPAs is a nonprofit professional organization representing over 4,400 Iowa CPAs and accounting professionals. Their mission is to advance professional success by providing helpful resources and leadership to improve skills of its members.
Student Involvement Opportunities
Loras has more than 100 co-curricular and involvement opportunities including organizations relating to academic majors, national honorary and professional societies, student and residence hall government, interest groups, recreational interests and several business-related clubs and organizations.
- Our Accounting Club provides opportunities for leadership positions, networking with accounting professionals and learning more about the accounting profession.
- VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) is an opportunity for accounting seniors to volunteer to prepare income tax returns for low income and elderly clients free of charge; the program is in partnership with the IRS.
Internship Opportunities
There is strong support for internships part-time during the academic year or full-time in spring semester or summer in public, private and governmental institutions.
Past internship opportunities have offered real-world experience in tax, bookkeeping, billing, auditing, corporate accounting, governmental accounting, nonprofit accounting, banking and investments.
Each year, Loras College business students complete internships in a wide array of organizations to prepare them for their job search after graduation. Students can complete internships for academic credit or non-credit. Many students choose to complete both.
Internships are a win-win: good for the students and good for the organizations. Students integrate what they have studied with the work they are assigned. Often, successful completion of an internship leads to an offer of full-time employment when the student graduates.”
Katie Callaghan, a marketing graduate, completed an internship with Dubuque marketing agency Plaid Swan, which she learned about through the Center for Experiential Learning (CEL). “I learned new writing skills at Plaid Swan, such as writing white paper documents, utilizing social media for small businesses, and creating and executing marketing plans for various clients. I also was responsible for meeting with clients on a weekly basis, developing case studies on previous campaigns, researching target audiences for rebranding efforts, and providing creative feedback to my clients and supervisors.”
The role of the Loras College Center for Experiential Learning [CEL] in internship coordination offers:
- Workshops with topics including internships, how to use Google in searching and why and how to network
- Networking Events—students often develop meaningful relationships that may lead to internships
- Career Fairs each fall have led to internships
- Individual meetings showing students how to search and how to network through LinkedIn, a strong tool to connect with alumni by joining Loras alumni groups
Students are taught how to seek out internships as those are the skills they will need the rest of their lives to find full-time positions. Business faculty communicate internship openings to students from a variety of sources, including from the companies, recruiting websites, or from CEL. Students may also find internship positions through career fairs or the Iowa College Recruiting Network interview days. Faculty serve as supervisors for the internships when students choose to earn academic credit.
Chelsea Myers, an accounting major, landed an internships in two distinctly different ways—one through contact with a Loras professor and one through her own existing network. She served as Petal Project Intern at ECIA, which she learned about through David Cochran, Ph.D., politics department, where she assisted with program implementation, tracking and promotion; and she currently interns for the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, a position she found through her own Facebook network.
I have learned about proper business etiquette and how much goes into planning a fundraising event that requires the support of an array of area businesses and supporters. In addition to business etiquette and event planning, I have also advanced my knowledge of philanthropy and grant writing, which I am excited to take with me into future endeavors.”
