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WMU > Haworth COB> Accountancy

Internship Program

Each year an increasing number of our undergraduate and graduate students complete internships with employers in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. Employers include the Big Four and regional public accounting firms, as well as large manufacturing firms.

Accountancy 4100-Internship (1-3 credit hours)

Under the direction of a faculty coordinator, students obtain full-time accounting related employment experience. Participation is limited to the available internships and competitive selection by the faculty coordinator and the prospective employers. Students are required to write a formal report. Each employer will provide an evaluation for the student. A student must be enrolled in Acty 4100 while meeting the requirements of the course. This course must be taken on a credit/no credit basis and does not count toward the accounting major. Prerequisite: Written consent of the faculty coordinator.

To receive credit for Acty 4100, Internship:

1. Put your resume on BroncoJOBSPlus.
2. Complete a Accounting Internship Program Application form. These forms are available in 3190 Schneider Hall (The Department of Accountancy). Give your completed internship form to the Department of Accountancy.
3. Potential employers contact a number of students for interviews and following the interviews, extend offers to selected students.
   
4. After accepting an internship, come to the Department of Accountancy (3190 Schneider Hall) and the Departmental Office Coordinator will register you for Acty 4100. Be sure to register forActy 4100 prior to the beginning of the internship. For a full time internship, you will register for (3) credit hours.
   
5. Toward the end of the internship, the intern will write a paper describing the internship experience. The paper is at least (10) pages in length, typed, double-spaced, and will include a title page. The title page will have your name, your telephone number, your e-mail address, the place of employment, and your supervisor's name and address. You must write a paper of the quality suitable for submission to a partner at the Big Four accounting firm. Papers not of the quality will be returned to you for revision. The paper will have four parts:
   
   A. What did you do? For example, you may provide details of your responsibilities completing tax returns. What types of returns did you complete? How did you do this? That is, did you use Turbotax, did you consult with coworkers, or did you use the paperbound tax service? Did you interact with clients? Did you run a copy machine?
   
   B. What did you learn? For example, "I learned that clients paying substantial capital gains taxes typically had high incomes." "I learned the importance of being able to work independently." "I learned the ground rules of working in a professional environment. These rules include the following..." "I learned that the tax code is the result of a political process, and there is little theory to justify tax provision." OF COURSE, YOU WILL PROVIDE DETAILS THAT EXPAND ON AND SUPPORT STATEMENTS SUCH AS THOSE LISTED.
   
   C. Link what you learned in your internship with a course or courses you completed outside the business school. The courses you completed outside the business school might be economics, psychology, english, sociology, communications, political science, religion, philosophy, biology, and many others. Choose one or more of the courses you completed outside the Haworth College of Business and explain how it relates to your internship. Consider that in any successful business firm there is effective managerial control. This means that there is some system in place so that to some degree all employees do what is in the best interests of the owners of the business. To illustrate, imagine you are doing an audit of Meijer. The CEO of Meijer wants each store manager to do what is in the best interests of the owners of Meijer, which is to make more rather than less profit at his/her store. The CEO might design a compensation system so that the store managers earn bonuses that are correlated to the profit earned at their stores. This is an accounting control mechanism.
   
   D. But are there other control mechanisms? Suppose that the store manager could make a higher profit if he or she sold fish or meat that was spoiled. Of course, if customers become ill from eating spoiled food, it is very difficult to prove that the cause of the illness was a specific food item from Meijer. Is there a control mechanism that keeps the manager from selling the spoiled fish or meat? Or, you could suggest that the "just world" hypothesis that is put forth in psychology would prevent the manager from selling spoiled meat or fish, because the manager, believing in a "just world," would think that he/she would suffer as a result of the action. Thus, the accounting control mechanism (the bonus system) is supplemented, perhaps, by religious, ethical, or psychological effects.

Due dates of the papers depend on the term of your internship. You can either bring your paper into the Department of Accountancy; attach your paper to an email, and send it to , or you can mail it to her at the address provided. An accounting internship is normally full-time employment for a period of one semester or (15 weeks). We strongly discourage students from enrolling in any classes other than Acty 4100 during the period of their internship so that they can devote their full attention to their internship experience. Students may only enroll in course work during their internship if they have obtained written permission from the Faculty Coordinator.From time to time employers wish to employ our students on a less than full time basis. For example, the employer may wish the student to work only (20) hours per week for a semester. It may be possible for such an arrangement to count for Acty 4100 credit. See the Faculty Coordinator for details.

Internships are available for any of the four semesters each year. However, most internships occur during the spring term (January – April). Each fall and winter, the Internship Controller calls a meeting of all students interested in internships. At this time, application materials are distributed to those students who are present. If needed materials are available to those inquiring. By early October students return these completed materials to the Department of Accountancy, Internship Controller.

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Internship Informational Meetings: There will be (2) informational meetings in the fall for students interested in an accounting internship. The meetings will be held in 3150 Schneider Hall. Please mark your calendar with the dates provided. We strongly urge you to attend one of the internship meetings, and to seriously consider an accounting internship. Completion of an internship will almost certainly enhance you employment opportunities following graduation. Intern employers frequently make offers to their interns upon graduation. I look forward to seeing you at one of the informational meetings in September. For further information on your internship visit broncojobs.wmich.edu, or contact.

Faculty Coordinator
Mr. David Rozelle, Beulah I. Kendall Professor
Haworth College of Business
Department of Accountancy
3144 Schneider Hall
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008-5402
(269) 387-5265

Internship Controller
Luann Bigelow, Office Coordinator
Haworth College of Business
Department of Accountancy
3190 Schneider Hall
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008-5402
(269) 387-5211

 

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