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1st Place Team, l-r, Chris Buwick, Dane Jorgensen, Derek Kreps and Chris Severs
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2nd Place Team, l-r, Chris Martin, Kaitlyn Ridge & Matt Buren
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3rd Place Team, l-r, Jery Weng, Sophie Pircon, Katie Hillyer & Alexa Whitehead
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REVISED: Annual Accounting Challenge

April 27, 2008

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MACOMB, IL -- High school students from Macomb, Galesburg and Lewistown tied for first in the individual competition and three Macomb High School teams swept the team competition at the Third Annual Western Illinois University High School Accounting Challenge at the WIU-Macomb campus April 11.

Sponsored by the Illinois CPA Society and Western's accountancy department, the challenge gives students in the west central Illinois region an opportunity to demonstrate their financial accounting knowledge in a written competition, said Marcia Lucas, challenge coordinator and accountancy professor.

Chris Buwick of Macomb Senior High School; Spencer Guerrero of Galesburg High School; and Mary Bull of Lewistown High School tied for first. They were each awarded WIU scholarships for more than $300 in recognition of their performance on the exam.

Nearly 60 high school students from five area high schools "grilled" five current undergraduate and graduate accounting students about coming to WIU, the accounting profession and classes at WIU. An hour-long accounting exam was given to the students as their teachers participated in an Educator Roundtable.

The winning Macomb teams, taught by Merikay Potter, included Macomb Off in the Woods (Buwick, Dane Jorgensen, Derek Kreps and Chris Severs), first place; Macomb BA (Matt Buren, Chris Martin, Kaitlyn Rigdon and David Glenn), second place; and Macomb JAKS (Jerry Weng, Alexa Whitehead, Katie Hillyer and Sophie Pircon), third place.

Other individual winners included: Macomb - Jorgensen, fourth place; Rigden and Hillyer, fifth place; Martin and Cecily Doyle, seventh place; and Carly Collison, ninth place; and United High School (Monmouth, IL) - Larissa Prentice, 10th place.

"The Accounting Challenge allows the high school students to show their team spirit; in fact, this year's top finishing team not only won the first place trophy, but clearly sported the most original team uniforms," said Accountancy Chair Jack Elfrink. "I'm proud of the accomplishments of all the teams and hope they can join us next year. The Accounting Challenge not only promotes accounting as a profession, but also gives the area high school students the chance to learn about the opportunities the department of accountancy, the College of Business and Technology and Western can provide."




Posted By: Darcie Shinberger (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing