A team of accounting students from Bryant University was among five teams that competed on Jan. 27 and 28 in the finals of xTax, a national accounting competition. A team from Brigham Young University won the competition, but the Bryant team – Courtney Bernard of Uxbridge, Mass.; Dan Cournoyer of Jefferson, Mass.; Ryan Hansen of Peabody, Mass.; Cornelia Li of Wuhan, China; and Anthony Nader of Milton, Mass. – won $10,000 for the team and an additional $5,000 for the team coach accounting professor Michael Lynch.
Lynch answered five questions about the competition.
PBN: What did the team have to do to qualify for the finals?
LYNCH: Nearly 130 students expressed an interest in this year’s challenge. I selected 40 students. There were eight teams of five. The eight teams competed on campus back in October in front of a panel of [PricewaterhouseCoopers] tax professionals. Each team gave a 12-minute presentation followed by a series of rigorous questions from the panel. This was followed by a dinner on campus where the winning team was announced. A tape of the winning presentation was sent to the PwC Washington, D.C., office where it was compared to other winners from around the country. The best five teams from around the country were invited to Washington last week to compete at the national level.
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PBN: How long has Bryant been competing in the xTax? Has a team ever gotten this far?
LYNCH: Bryant has been competing in xTax for about eight years. About six years ago, we went to the nationals. One of the members of that team, Ryan Scadding, recently scored one of the top grades on the CPA exam in America. The others are also very successful and quickly moving up the corporate ladder. When those members heard that Bryant was in the finals again this year, they came down to the university to help guide this year’s team during the semester break in January.
PBN: What was the atmosphere at the finals: Was it like the Final Four? Or more like a final exam?
LYNCH: The first night was very festive. There was a tour of the NEWSEUM, followed by dinner and talks with PwC tax personnel stationed in D.C. The discussions were very informative and enlightening. However, after dinner, the teams retreated to their hideouts for last-minute refinements and rehearsals. Bedtime was late. The competition took place early the next morning.
PBN: How was the team selected?
LYNCH: That was the hardest part, because I do not teach sophomores and each team must have two sophomores. First of all, I rely on Robert Calabro, a PwC tax partner from the Boston office and a member of Bryant’s board of trustees. Mr. Calabro hires about 30 of my students each year. He is on campus as often as the average commuter. PwC has a sophomore leadership program and a summer internship program for juniors and seniors. They also conduct a diversity program during the summer months. I cherry pick from these programs and enlist the help of all accounting faculty to refer energetic students to me. I collect resumes and interview qualifying students. Eliminating good candidates is difficult but there is always next year.
PBN: As faculty coach, what is your involvement with the team?
LYNCH: I serve as a mentor to each team for a two-week period. My role is to guide the team in the right direction and to point out any blatant mistakes. I am not allowed to answer any technical questions but by the look on my face, they know if they are asking the right questions and if they are in the ballpark. I also use members from prior year’s teams to help me judge and critique mock presentations. That’s the hardest part. It is difficult to criticize and praise at the same time. The goal is not to improve an individual team member but to improve the entire team. Sometimes that means reducing one member’s role and increasing another’s. In a nutshell, the competition is fierce but the top students keep coming back for more.
