PC students reach contest finals

PROVIDENCE – A team of Providence College students has qualified for the finals of a national accounting contest for the first time in five year of competing.
Five PC students are slated to attend the finals of the xTREME Accounting (xACT) competition on Jan. 22 in New York City and will face teams from the University of Connecticut, Syracuse University, Villanova University and the University of Illinois.
The finalists were chosen recently by a national review committee from a pool of about 40 teams following individual campus presentations in November.
PC’s team will be accompanied by its faculty mentor, Carol A. Hartley, assistant professor of accountancy and a CPA.
xACT tests college students’ knowledge of
high-level accounting, business practices and the accounting profession. It emphasizes critical thinking and communication skills, working in a collaborative environment and interacting with fellow accountants.
The competition is sponsored by global accounting and auditing giant PricewaterhouseCoopers and will take place at its headquarters. The winning team members each receive $10,000 from PricewaterhouseCoopers, and their faculty mentor is awarded $5,000. The overall champion will be crowned the winner of the Montgomery Award, named after Robert Montgomery, who wrote the first American book on the practice of accounting.