Gabelli Dual Degree: My Experience at Fordham Lincoln Center!

As a current undergraduate senior at Fordham's Gabelli School of Business at Rose Hill, I have had many unique opportunities to further my education in business. From internships, to case competitions, to consulting projects, there has never been a dull moment for me at the Gabelli School of Business. Now that I am entering my final undergraduate semester, the time has come for me to explore new opportunities the Gabelli School has to offer for its seniors. 

Fordham's Gabelli School of Business at
Lincoln Center is newly renovated!

This semester, I was accepted into the Gabelli School of Business Graduate Business School. Since I am currently a senior Applied Accounting and Finance major, I had the opportunity to apply to begin my graduate education early in order to get a head start on earning my additional credits to take the Certified Public Accountancy (C.P.A.) licensing exams. By creating the opportunity for Fordham undergraduates to get a head start in graduate school, Fordham makes it super easy for accounting majors to get their required C.P.A. credits and sit for their licensing exams! Taking a few graduate classes in addition to my remaining undergraduate classes this semester will allow me to better prepare myself for my career as a C.P.A.. 

Beautiful views from the hallways and
classrooms of the business school!

Fordham's Graduate Business school is located on the university's beautiful Lincoln Center campus on W 60th Street in Manhattan. Taking classes at Lincoln Center has been an amazing experience so far! The graduate business school is a beautiful learning environment, and the Lincoln Center campus is filled with exciting activities. It is very easy for students who live on the Rose Hill campus to take classes at the Lincoln Center campus, and vice versa. When I signed up for my classes at Lincoln Center, I was given free passes to take the campus shuttle (The "Ram Van") from my apartment on the Rose Hill campus straight to the Lincoln Center campus for class! 

View from inside of the Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center

I am so lucky to be a part of a learning community that dedicates itself to helping its students succeed in their careers, and supports students professionally and academically. I am so excited to be taking graduate business classes at Fordham Lincoln Center this semester, and to continue my graduate education as a Fordham Ram! 

A Day in the Life of an Applied Accounting and Finance Student at Fordham

Fordham's Gabelli School of Business at Rose Hill has tons of opportunities for students of all schools and majors. From internships, to clubs, to case competitions, to networking events, there is something for everyone at the Gabelli School. I have taken advantage of many of the Gabelli School's opportunities over my last few years here, and I am continuing to do so now as a senior. In this blog, I will be discussing my experience as an Applied Accounting and Finance major at Fordham. 

Fordham's Beta Alpha Psi students volunteering with KPMG professionals

Majoring in Applied Accounting and Finance at Fordham has been an amazing experience, and has been filled with so many amazing opportunities! I am a part of Fordham's chapter of Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) an honor society for accounting and finance majors. In this society, students have the opportunity to network with professionals from Big Four accounting firms, mid sized accounting firms, banks, and other commercial companies. As a part of our membership, students in Beta Alpha Psi also have the opportunity to participate in fulfilling community service events. My favorite BAP community service event was an event sponsored by KPMG's Family for Literacy last semester. Fordham students went to a public school in Manhattan, and read books to students. The event was a great way for Fordham students to collaborate with accounting professionals while giving back to our community. 

Majoring in Applied Accounting and Finance at 

Fordham has opened the door to so many awesome 

career opportunities! Here's a great picture of me 

at KPMG's National Intern Training in Orlando, FL

Fordham is a great school for accounting majors who want the opportunity to intern and work for large or mid sized accounting firms. Due to Fordham's proximity to Manhattan, many business students can easily intern or work at the firms during the school year or over the summer. Another one of my fantastic experiences while attending the Gabelli School was interning at KPMG for the past two summers. Last May, I also attended one of KPMG's leadership conferences with a select group of students from universities across the country. Next summer, I will return to KPMG to intern in the Audit practice in Manhattan. I am so happy that I chose to attend a school that has allowed me to become involved with so many amazing opportunities related to my major. 

Me at my amazing summer internship 

at KPMG's Montvale, NJ office!

Being an Applied Accounting and Finance student at Fordham has been exciting, challenging, and rewarding. The Gabelli School's extensive academic curriculum combined with amazing opportunities to intern and network with firms has transformed me into a well-rounded, passionate young professional. If you are a prospective student interested in a career in accounting or finance, Fordham will definitely offer you the tools and opportunities to be successful. 

Senior Spotlight: Kevin Kosciuk

Picture for my last home swim meet!

Name: Kevin Kosciuk

Hometown: Cheshire, CT

Major: Public Accounting

Graduation date: May 2015

Why did you choose Fordham? 

As a student in the business school, being close to the City was very important in making my decision. All of the other quality schools I looked at were not very close to any cities. Also, coming from the suburbs, I wanted to try something different by living close to NYC.

What clubs/organizations/internships have you been involved in? What has been your favorite experience? 

At Fordham I am a member of the varsity swim team and also a member in Beta Alpha Psi (Accounting Society). Outside of Fordham I have interned twice. Both of my internship experiences were great. I also look forward to my third internship this summer with Deloitte. My favorite experience has been being a part of the swim team at Fordham. It was a good experience to be a part of a team and having others as teammates but also as friends outside of competition.

What do you think is the best resource available to students on campus? 

Career services is the best resource available to students on campus. Although is it not a job placement center, they can always help you out the best they can and point you in the right direction as far as internships and possible job opportunities. They were the ones that fixed up my resume and suggested I join Beta Alpha Psi and that has really helped me throughout my time here at Fordham.

What is your favorite personal memory at Fordham? 

My favorite personal memory of Fordham is the first time that I stepped out on to Eddie’s the spring semester as a freshman. I thought that it was the coolest thing to see all of Fordham hanging out there.

Where is your favorite place to hang out at Fordham or in NYC?

Arthur Avenue is probably my favorite place to hang out around Fordham. The food and the markets in the area are all delicious and it is nice to live so close to it all.

What are your plans/goals/aspirations for post-graduation? 

Post-graduation, I will be attending graduate school for one year here at Fordham to get my Master’s Degree in Professional Accounting. I then aspire to start working for one of the “Big 4” accounting firms in New York.

Networking at a Carnival!

Last week, Beta Alpha Psi held an on-campus networking carnival for Accounting, Finance and Information Systems students to network with different firms in an informal way. The club invited a total of 12 companies to the event. Each company had their own carnival booth with a game, where students had to participate in order to try and win prizes. Simultaneously, students were networking with both recruiters and full time workers from the respective company.

The prize I won at the Deloitte booth.

The first company I networked with was PwC, one of the big four accounting firms. Their carnival game was to knock down bowling pins that were stacked in a pyramid with a beanbag. While I didn’t knock down as many as I wanted, I got a nice PwC reusable bag as well as materials about their leadership programs and summer internships.

PwC reusable bag

The other three big four accounting firms, EY, Deloitte, and KPMG were present. In addition, some midsized accounting firms were there, such as McGladrey and Grant Thornton. However, it was not all accounting! Becker, a CPA Review Course Firm was there as well as a recruiting agency and some finance firms, like JP Morgan. This is one of the great things about Fordham. Its location so close to Manhattan allows so many companies to easily come on campus continuously throughout the year to recruit and hold fun events like this one!

Can't wait to wear my luck CPA shirt!

Summer in NYC

This past summer I was fortunate enough to intern at one of the Big Four Accounting Firms, Ernst & Young, LLP, in their Times Square office. As a public accounting major, I was thrilled to gain experience in the public accounting corporate world so early on in my career. At EY, I was a part of the Launch program, which is an internship program for underrepresented groups to gain corporate experience. My Launch class was over 60 students across the Northeast Region in EY offices ranging from New York City, Boston, Buffalo, and Providence.

EY Office in Times Square

View from the cafeteria

As an intern in the Launch program, I had the opportunity to shadow in both Tax and Assurance to get a feel for which side of accounting I would like to pursue. Within the Real Estate tax group, I got to review K-1 tax forms for real estate trusts. While shadowing on assurance side of the firm, I had the opportunity to visit different Real Estate client sites for audit work. For the rest of my time at the firm, I interned with EY Knowledge, which is an internal research group for the firm. In my group, I analyzed Big Data in excel (something I learned in my Information Systems core classes), which was then used for high-level decision-making by executives. The Launch program also brought in many speakers from both within and outside the firm for us to learn some more professional development skills. One of my favorite speakers was Kwame Jackson, runner up in Season 1 of The Apprentice and now very successful entrepreneur.

Myself and some other interns with Kwame Jackson

One of the best parts of the Launch program was the opportunity to work with a group of interns on a project throughout the eight-week program. I was working with four other interns from different schools on a consulting project that we presented on the last day of our internship to EY associates and managers. Receiving feedback on our ideas and presentation skills from people who are currently doing the work we want to do in the future was invaluable. It allowed us to apply all of the concepts we learned in classes to a typical presentation seen in the workplace on a daily basis.

My group on presentation day!

From Physical Therapy to Accounting

When applying to college, most students are unaware of what career path they would like to take. When I was applying to schools, I thought I knew I wanted to be a physical therapist. I had applied to schools with six-year programs for physical therapy. When I finally had to decide what college to pick, I chose Fordham because I didn’t want to be locked into a physical therapy program.

Keating Hall, home of Fordham College Rose Hill

This ended up being a great choice because within the first week of classes, I decided that the sciences weren’t for me and that math was more of my strong suit. Second semester of my freshman year I decided to transfer from Fordham College Rose Hill (the liberal arts college) to the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham. While most schools have a lengthy process to internally transfer, Fordham allows it to be a very easy process. I filled out an application, spoke with the freshman dean in Fordham College, and then submitted the application. I heard by the end of the semester that I had been officially accepted into the Gabelli School of Business starting the beginning of my sophomore year.

Hughes Hall, home of the Gabelli School of Business

The logistics of the transfer process is easy, but I must warn you that you need to take specific classes as prerequisites to the Integrated Business Core in Gabelli. Because I knew I wanted to transfer before second semester of my freshman year started, I took the prerequisite classes that semester. Some of those classes include microeconomics, macroeconomics, finite math, and the Ground Floor (Business 101). An internal transfer at Fordham is definitely possible, but I advise everyone to think about whether they want to transfer earlier rather than later. You want to make sure you complete the necessary prerequisite and core classes needed for either school you choose to be in in order to graduate on time!

A Weekend Adventure: Tax and Texas

My team in Texas!

A few short days after returning to Fordham to begin my final semester (YIKES, these four year flew!), I was off to spend a weekend in Texas. Back in November, my team, which consisted of two sophomores, one junior and a graduate student (all studying Accounting), qualified to compete at the Deloitte National FanTAXtic Competition after placing first at our regional competition. Our win secured us a spot to compete amongst eight other universities (including University of Wisconsin-Madison, USC, William & Mary, and Texas A&M) at Deloitte’s National Training Center in Westlake, Texas!

For the last few months, our team has been under the instruction of Gabelli’s undergraduate tax Professor and a Deloitte tax professional from the New York office. While they were not permitted to solve the case study for us, their feedback and input helped us to prepare for each of our final presentations (one for each the Regional Competition and the National Competition). 

Deloitte University in Westlake, TX!

Shortly after landing in Texas and arriving the Deloitte University (Deloitte’s National Training Center and a truly AMAZING facility), we were presented with our first task; based off information provided to us from our 'client', we were given two hours to prepare a memo advising the company on how to best deal with the tax consequences. The following day, we were presented with different information and given three hours to develop a 15 minute presentation advising our ‘client’ about different tax issues and transactions. While working under the time constraint was quite stressful, my team successfully completed both tasks and anxiously waited for the results to be announced later that night!

The results were announced at a formal dinner and awards ceremony and though our team did not win, the experience was tremendous! Many Deloitte professionals shared with us how great they thought participating was because it was very similar to work they do on a daily basis. In addition, I met students from other universities all over the country and worked with a great team of students from Fordham who I had never met prior to beginning the competition. Finally, having the opportunity to take a trip to Texas was quite an honor and a highlight of my time here at Fordham for sure!

The FanTAXic Four!

A team of accounting students at Fordham recently won a regional tax competition hosted by one of the big four accounting firms, Deloitte! I caught up with one of the team members, Stephen Falzone, who shared a bit about himself and the competition. 

Stephen Falzone, GSB Class of 2015.

Hi Stephen! Thanks for talking to us!

No problem! It’s a good break from preparing for finals.

So tell us a little bit about why you chose Fordham for accounting

Well I had always loved math and watching my dad work as a CPA really got my interested in the profession. So when I was applying to colleges as a senior, I looked for a college that was in close proximity to New York City, because it’s the ideal city for accounting. I also wanted a strong accounting program and a strong business school in general. While Fordham obviously matched those criteria, it was Gabelli’s small classes and really challenging core curriculum where you get to be exposed to all aspects of business that caught my eye. I can honestly say it helped me get stronger academically and professionally.

Well on that note congratulations on your group winning the Deloitte Regional fanTAXic competition!

Thank you!

How did you get involved with the competition?

My Professor sent out emails to all of the Gabelli accounting students and encouraged students to apply. I was luckily selected for the team, which made me very happy because I had a lot of interest in it. I really appreciate how many opportunities the business school gives you, my inbox is constantly flooded with information about career building contests, seminars and events. You obviously have to put a lot of work in to excel, but they do a fantastic job of helping you find your way.

Can you tell us a little more about it?

Sure, well it’s a tax case study where we answer three questions between five students on my team. I was lucky to get selected and my teammates were really great to work with. It is normally made up of two seniors, two sophomores and one graduate student but my professor opened it up to his junior classes and I luckily got picked. They gave us some pretty challenging case studies. We did a bunch of research together and there were a lot of late nights in Gabelli’s new building which has tons of study space. On the day of the competition, we got to present our findings to a panel of partners and recruiters. Luckily, we won!

How did Fordham and Gabelli prepare you for the competition?

Gabelli gives us great experience for working with groups on case studies. I’ve actually worked in three case study groups for the business core before even starting this competition. So our whole team already had experience working productively in professional teams of people we didn’t know that well so we all felt pretty confident on that front. Also, even though the competition was strictly a tax accountancy one, it involved more of a consulting lens. Because of Fordham’s diverse core curriculum that emphasizes business communication and strong critical thinking, I was more than prepared for that challenge. Ultimately though, I am very grateful to my tax professor who helped us so much. Oh and I have to thank Arthur Ave for all of the delicious comfort food during those late nights!

Yes, cannolis do seem to fix any level of stress! What did your professor do to help?

Well we could always go to him for help and he was always in contact with us. Additionally, he set up our presentation review session the day before and helped us with aesthetic changes. However, he left us alone with the material and had complete confidence in us. That confidence really helped us succeed.

So what is up next for you and your team?

We’re heading to Dallas in January for the national finals! We’re competing against Boston College, Texas A&M, University of Wisconsin, Washington University in Saint Louis and a lot of others so we’ve got a lot of work to do.

Well good luck to you and your teammates Stephen and congratulations again!

Thanks!

The CSTEP Family

CSTEP (Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program) is a New York state-wide program that helps minority and economically-disadvantaged students who are interested in careers related to the science, technology, engineering, medicine, or licensed professional fields.

I was introduced to CSTEP at Fordham last year as a freshman when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to study. At the time, I was interested in teaching, and CSTEP was holding an informational session with alumni who were in the teaching and social services professions. It was very informative for me to hear stories from alumni who are currently teaching and who have just graduated.

Since last year, I have transferred to the Gabelli School of Business and changed my major to accounting, but CSTEP is still an extremely helpful resource. It introduced me to an organization, INROADS, which places students into internships with well-known companies in corporate America. I am currently in the process of waiting for interviews from companies like the Big 4 accounting firms for a multi-summer, paid internship!

On Saturday, October 26, CSTEP held a Career and Professional Development Summit at the Rose Hill Campus. This event was titled “Dream It, Learn It, Be It,” and the day was filled with three different sessions to help students with their career choices, to hear real life stories of successful people who were in our shoes at one point, and to become motivated to continue our studies.

Keynote Speaker, Dr. Adam Aponte

The highlight of the event for me was the “Learn It” section. This was an opportunity to ask Fordham and CSTEP alumni, who are currently in the field we are studying, questions. I got to attend a session about the accounting field with alumni Carolina Polanco and Victor Santos. They told us about their personal experiences studying accounting at Fordham and how they got the careers they are in now. I am very lucky to be a part of CSTEP, as it has many different opportunities for me as both a student and soon to be professional.

CSTEP students in a "Learn it" Session

Beta Alpha Psi

Here at Fordham Beta Alpha Psi is one of the largest clubs here on campus. It is an honorary national organization for primarily Finance and Accounting students. They strive to promote the study and practice of these fields as well as information systems by bringing in the top Financial and Accounting firms of the country as well as holding internal and external networking events. It is an extremely beneficial club to get involved in if you wish to pursue in Accounting or Finance. There is one meeting per week and so far in each meeting we have had speakers and recruiters form each of the "Big 4" (Deloitte, Ernst & Young, PWC, and KPMG). Upcoming events include PWC's xTax Launch Competition in which groups compete and must think together in which the winning team receives $1,000. The Kick-Off mission meeting is October 18th at 5:15 PM in Keating 1st. There is also the KPMG Case Study Competition, the information session being held October 20th at 5:15 in Keating 3rd.


In addition to the speakers, networking events. and competitions, community service is a huge role in Beta Alpha Psi. As a member you are required to participate in community service throughout the semester. Some events run by Beta Alpha Psi that are coming up include New York Cares Day (October 15th), E&Y Breast Cancer Walk (October 16th), and a Central Park clean-up. There is also the famous Polar Plunge towards the end of the semester on December 4th. Last year, the Fordham Plungin' Rams raised almost $10,000 to help Special Olympic athletes with their training and to help get equipment. If interested please go to Our Polar Plunge Team and sign up. If you have any further questions please contact Luigi Mascia lmascia@fordham.edu or Steve Cirincione at cirincione@fordham.edu.