Accounting Excellence

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has chosen Gabrielle Roe ’16 ’17 as a postgraduate technical assistant (PTA) for the 2018 calendar year. Roe, a graduate student in Trinity’s master’s program in accounting, is one of seven students nationwide to be selected for the appointment. She will begin her year-long term this winter in Norwalk, Conn.

Founded in 1973, the FASB is a nonprofit that establishes and improves standard financial accounting and reporting principles in the United States. As a PTA, Roe will become deeply involved in the standards-setting process and, according to the FASB website, “will be assigned to major agenda projects or short-term practice and implementation issues.” Roe is the second Trinity graduate student to earn a FASB appointment in the four years that the University has been included on the FASB’s list of nominating institutions. Benjamin Dart ’13 ’15 also served the FASB in a winter term.

“It is pretty surreal to be selected,” says Roe. “I was surprised when I got it, but Trinity’s accounting program definitely prepared me for the interviews and has helped me understand the why behind accounting, how to think, and how to put things together.”

Originally from New Orleans, La., Roe came to Trinity with a plan to major in business. She gravitated toward accounting because she wanted to learn “the language of business.” Roe is one of 11 graduate students receiving their master of science in accounting this May. The program has a 100 percent employment rate and was ranked #5 in CPA Exam performance among 300 mid-sized programs in 2016.

Although she is eager to start work at the FASB, Roe will spend the months between graduation and her move to Connecticut studying for the CPA exam. As she contemplated the offer, Roe reached out to Dart to learn what she might expect. Dart, a senior at Ernst & Young’s Financial Accounting Advisory Services (FAAS) practice, calls the experience “one of the best decisions” of his life.

“I learned a lot from the PTA program and improved my capacity to convey complex thoughts while I was there,” says Dart. “The most beneficial thing was the confidence I gained to speak up and share my thoughts and ideas. The FASB is a collaborative environment and my project managers were really good about asking my thoughts and what I learned from my research.”

Dart credits Trinity’s accounting master’s program for its “emphasis on writing and critical thinking” as well as its understanding of accounting basics. A native of Washington (state), Dart also majored in business administration as an undergraduate.