Tax Course

Just registered for the H&R Block Income Tax Course! This is really exciting because I have wanted to take this for the last two years but it hasn't worked out until now. I start September 2nd, the day after I get back from a trip to the East coast, and finish at the end of November. This is will make my course load for Autumn quarter pretty intense, but I'm hoping that starting the class before school starts will help me ease into the academic year.

If things work out for Winter quarter, I'd also like to participate in the Business and Economic Development Program, which (from what I've gathered) is a program that trains and allows students to help real-life small businesses get their business on track. I think this will be a very enjoyable, beneficial program to participate in because I want to do some consulting (or at least know how to), as well. Laura Umetsu, a dear friend and Marketing/Entrepreneurship major at Foster, introduced me to one of the leaders who coordinates the program and he said it would be very useful to have an accountant on hand.

One of my desires as a Business major is to be well-rounded. It is so easy to specialize and get too caught up in one's own work that one forgets about the other perspectives and segments within an organization. We studied this in my Managerial Accounting class and it has been my conviction since high school to not get stuck in an Accounting bubble. I want to understand business as a whole, not just the books. Actually, I hope to understand more than just business, because the world needs all kinds of things to click in order to work well. That's another thing I love about our Business School - they encourage their students to be well-rounded by requiring them to take 90 NON-business credits (I'm at 95, but will hopefully still be able to take more) because they want their students to see the big picture and think outside of the box.

So... there are many things to look forward to. Oh, almost forgot that I want to do the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) xAct (Extreme Accounting) competition again next Autumn. (My team placed 3rd at UW last year!) Hopefully I'll be able to handle the tax course, 16 credits (5 classes), and xAct. November will be rough because that is when the triple-overlap occurs... We shall see! Either way, this crunch will be very worth the short-term stress. Yay, investing!


Jessica K. Nguyen
Accounting, Finance Class of 2010
Michael G. Foster School of Business
University of Washington, Seattle
accountingforAfrica.blogspot.com