This award-winning student organization provides connections and opportunities for accounting and finance students.

By Alainna Jayce Gonzales

In the past seven years, teams representing UNLV’s IMA (Institute of Management Accountants) student chapter have won the annual IMA National Student Case Competition six times. Led by a driven team of student leaders, the organization offers future accounting and finance professionals a place to hone their professional skills in real-world applications. I sat down with IMA’s president, Joanna Marie Acosta, to get the ins and outs of the success of the student organization. 

What is IMA in your own words?
I would describe it as a dynamic and influential professional association dedicated to advancing the field of management accounting. We focus on management, accounting, and helping students get their Certified Management Accountant (CMA) certification.

Why should accounting and finance students join?
There are a lot of benefits for accounting and finance students to join IMA. The main one is professional development. The national IMA organization provides access to a wide range of resources like webinars, workshops, and conferences where you get to network not only nationally through these webinars but also globally because we are a global association. At UNLV IMA, we work frequently with different industries. We bring in professionals both virtually and in-person to present to our members. We have a month or two of recruiting season. So we frequently bring in all these firms to recruit students from our club.

Lastly, the CMA certification. For students interested in getting their CMA certification, we recommend becoming a member because we nominate 10 students per semester for our CMA scholarship so they can get their exam fees and study materials taken care of. IMA also offers scholarship opportunities for members majoring in accounting and finance which can help cover the cost of attending college.

Would you recommend non-accounting and non-finance students to join?
Yes. They probably won't get as many resources because the scholarships are for accounting and finance students. But they can participate in the webinars, workshops, and events we hold in person. We do have non-accounting and non-finance students. Information systems students join because we cover a lot of data analytics. Based on the IMA competition we just went to, they focus a lot on data analytics, so IS students benefit from that, too.

Why is student involvement important?
Student involvement is important for personal and professional growth. For personal growth, you can learn leadership skills, analytical thinking, and communication skills. As for professional growth –by attending UNLV IMA’s events, you’re basically getting your foot in the door which opens up so many opportunities for jobs. IMA, or the accounting department in general, emphasizes expanding your network through personal and professional relationships. They emphasize utilizing LinkedIn. Personally, I’ve met so many people in different industries, and through LinkedIn, you can stay connected with them. For instance, I am familiar with the people I work with now because I met them during the recruiting season. 

Another thing is community engagement. UNLV IMA does not only have professional events, we have community service events, too. We work with non-profit organizations across the valley. 

Lastly, student involvement is important because of the leadership opportunities. For me, that was a big thing because I didn’t think I could find a leadership position during my college career. IMA is always looking for students who want to be part of the leadership team.

As a member, how many hours a month should a student expect to dedicate to involvement in IMA to make membership worth it?
IMA doesn’t have any hour requirements for its student members. It’s more of going at your own pace. We set up one to two events per week related to professional or community engagement. So students can dedicate an hour or two per week. We understand that people have jobs and personal lives while being a full-time student. To get the most out of it, I would say a student should dedicate four to eight hours per month.

Is there a cost to join?
There is a $25 membership fee through the national IMA that covers the whole academic year. Initially, it’s $45, but IMA gives out a student discount code so students only have to pay $25. With the membership fee, student members have access to what the national IMA and UNLV’s IMA chapter have to offer.

How has student leadership impacted your personal journey?
I’ve been in student leadership, like student government, since my freshman year of high school. In my first two years of college, I wasn’t in a leadership position. I was afraid because it’s a much bigger school. Then, I joined IMA and Beta Alpha Psi. I told myself that it’d be nice to be a leader again because it really helps with personal growth. For instance, it helps you understand what you truly want to do and what you’re good at. Also, it helps with your goals. My goal was to get a full-time offer at a firm. My other goal is to get my certifications, CPA and CMA. Being a student leader helped build my confidence. Being comfortable with the uncomfortable. It allowed me to build professional relationships with my advisors and fellow leaders whom I still talk often.

Tell me about your experience in attending the 2023 IMA National Student Case Competition and the conference.
This was my second year getting into the finals. It was a very proud moment for my advisor and me.

At the conference, we had different sessions for each time block and you chose what you’re interested in. We chose data analytics, which focused on how technology can increase productivity in the accounting and data industries. The next session I went to was a women’s panel. The panel consisted of women from the UAE, Africa, and the Netherlands. So again, that's where global networking comes in.

What did you learn?
It is a team-based competition where we present a business case that requires our analysis of strategic thinking and principles of accounting and finance. It enhances our analytical and presentation skills.

Why is it important for accounting and finance students to join a competition like this?
They have the opportunity to apply the theoretical knowledge that they have gained in accounting and finance. So going back to whether non-accounting and non-finance students can join, the IMA competition requires one student who is not in accounting and finance. And to be able to join this competition, you have to be a member. Last year, our team had a marketing student. She focused on the marketing strategies and recommendations because she has more knowledge of that. And vice versa, she probably wouldn’t know any accounting or finance principles, so she won’t work on that part of the case. 

These cases get us ready for real-world business cases because IMA tries to give students cases of what could happen in real life. It enhances our technical, analytical, and problem-solving abilities because we have to analyze complex businesses that could be real-world cases. 

IMA is really big on professional development and networking opportunities. For networking opportunities, if you get into the finals of the IMA competition, you get to go to their annual IMA Accounting and Finance Conference. That’s where global networking comes in because they have all the global chapters come to the U.S. to attend the conference. As well as national professionals in different industries. 

And then professional development. Throughout the time we were working on this case– because it opens up in December –our advisors sent out an email saying “who wants to join” and things like all the rule sets. They help us with this competition. They provide us with insights, constructive criticism, and guidance that could help us refine our skills, broaden our perspective, and grow personally and professionally. Doing this competition you realize skills that you thought you didn’t have.

What skills were those for you?
I would say I didn’t have presentation skills. In high school, I was always scared to present in front of many people. But being a student leader helped me with that confidence. It’s a big competition, so you’re scared and it’s nerve-wracking. But speaking to the judges or to a roomful of professionals, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

Were you able to apply what you learned in the student case competition to your job now? Did the student case competition prepare you well?
Yes. The advice I got from my recruiter was to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. I was always scared to ask questions. If I don't know something, I’d think, ‘They're gonna think that I’m dumb.’ So with the competition, I practiced that. If I have a question in mind, I would ask our advisor. I also practice that at work now. 

I've been doing teamwork throughout high school and college, but the case competition makes you realize that you really have to work together to bring in all these different perspectives or different experiences. 

This year there was a lot of hospitality. We had a student who was a double major in hospitality. Another student had insights about information data analytics. Having a team in diverse industries is really important because again, I don't know anything about the hospitality industry but she does. So I think diversity is important to have in the workplace. Like, someone could know something you don't and vice versa. It just makes the work more efficient and more productive. Teamwork is really important.