The FMU Accounting Club made its first appearance from 6 – 8 p.m. on Nov. 7 in Founders Hall, where 55 students came out to hear Chris Jenkins, CEO of the South Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants (SCACPA), serve as a guest speaker.

The turnout was greater than anticipated, so the club had to relocate to a bigger room.

For refreshments, there was a self-serve buffet for students to enjoy during the meeting, which included root beer floats, fruit, cheese and Chick-Fil-A.

SCACPA is an organization geared toward furthering the success of certified public accountants (CPA). Joining SCACPA will allow accounting students to build connections and learn new things within their aspiring field.

Jenkins talked to the students about how advancements in technology are changing the field of accounting and how accountants have to make those changes as well.

Jenkins also offered to pay the membership fees of any student in attendance who wanted to join SCACPA.

Students who joined would also be given a free attractions coupon book.

For the Accounting Club’s first fundraiser, they will also be selling the attractions books.

To wrap up their first event, they had a raffle ticket drawing that included Chick-Fil-A gift cards, a free oil change and FMU merchandise.

The meeting was sponsored by SCACPA, Surgent CPA and CMA review, Dunrite Automotive, Tidal Wave and Sam’s Club.

Accounting Club president Collin Gardner, VP of finance and CFO Larryon George, VP Membership and CMO Taylor Hayes, VP Operations and COO Grace Teal and Secretary and CCO Tony Mozeak all came together to start the Accounting Club.

The club’s advisor is Scott Dell, assistant professor of accounting.

George said he was very pleased with the turnout and positive feedback from the students.

“Even though the meeting lasted for two hours, I really liked how engaged the students were the whole time,” George said.

George and the other board members came together to create a club that would bring together accounting students of all classifications.

“This club will allow accounting students to network with other students in their major and build outside connections that will help them gain more resources outside of the school,” George said.

Like many of the majors offered at FMU, the accounting major is very intensive and has a challenging curriculum that students have to pass.

“We figured by creating the Accounting Club it would inspire and help motivate accounting students to keep going strong,” George said. “A lot of people start off as accounting majors, but only a handful graduate with an accounting degree.”

The Accounting Club plans to host certified public accounting and certified managerial accounting workshops as well as more guest speakers for students to be able to learn and gain experience.”

For the time being, they will host one meeting a month.

The workshops will be geared toward helping students pass the standardized testing that all accounting majors have to take.