October 7: Department of Business honours top accounting students

There was an unlikely winner at the recent Academic Excellence in Accounting dinner, hosted by the Department of Business. Hotel and Tourism Management graduate Katrina Bin won four of the evening’s top awards. CME’s Department of Business recently hosted its annual Academic Excellence in Accounting dinner at the University of Guelph’s Arboretum Centre. The event featured a mix of current students, alumni, faculty and business leaders who sponsored many of the awards.
The evening’s top winner was Katrina Bin, a recent BComm graduate from the school of Hospitality and Tourism Management, received four of the top five awards.
Department of Business Chair Fred Pries said that in accounting, Bin had found an area of study that would complement her HTM studies.

“I think we’re trying to help students not only focus on their major, but also develop areas that will be of benefit to them in their working lives,” Pries said. “It’s something I think Guelph is better positioned to do than other schools.” 

Pries said that while the event’s format allowed current students and recent graduates a number of networking opportunities, its primary focus was to recognize the students’ achievements. He pointed to the presence of retired faculty Bill Braithwaite as an example of this.

“He’s taught financial management here for 51 years,” Pries noted. “He’s not here because he has to be here, but because he still wants to interact with the students and share in their successes.”

From an industry perspective, Pries was happy to see representation from the three professional bodies in accounting, CA, CMA and CGA. He singled out CMA Ontario President and CEO Merv Hillier for his support in recognizing the students’ efforts.
“They have been a big contributor and they sponsored the dinner,” Pries added.
With the first official recipients of CME’s new accounting major set to graduate at the upcoming Fall Convocation, Pries said the awards dinner was the ideal place to promote the new program to recent alumni.

“Most of the recent ones know, and they’ve been pretty good at promoting it within their organizations,” Pries said. “So word is getting out.”