Andrew Hagen loves Humboldt so much he earned two undergraduate degrees from our institution.  He originally came to Humboldt to study Wildlife Management in 2000.  After graduating with a Wildlife degree in 2003, he spent 10 years in various wildlife and fisheries positions.  Recently, he returned to Humboldt to pursue a second bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting for the purpose of pursuing the CPA. During this time, he also served as the Accounting & Finance Student Club President.

In February 2017, Andrew was one of five students selected nationally to participate in the Institute of Management Accountant (IMA) Student Leadership experience in San Diego, CA.  His trip was highly competitive and completely paid for by the IMA.  During the conference, Andrew had the opportunity to network with top executives within corporate America.  The following is an account of Andrew’s key takeaways from this experience:     

What did you learn from your experience? 

“The IMA’s Student Leadership Experience was a valuable opportunity to watch the planning and strategy involved in a large organization. It was great to observe IMA’s leadership and how they really aim to provide value to their members. In class, we often hear about the ‘tone at the top’ within an organization; this was a great experience to see it in action and observe how it translates into concrete results.”

Who did you meet? 

“I appreciated being at the IMA Global Board Meeting; surrounded by CFOs, Controllers, and Finance Directors of major corporations. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet these corporate leaders, to ask about their career paths and how they got to their positions, and to talk about what they look for in their hires. The networking was invaluable.”

How did you apply your experience back at Humboldt?

“The Accounting and Finance Club was a fun and rewarding opportunity to compliment my academic studies. As the second president of the club, I was honored to strengthen the young club. The club is a great group of talented students and future professionals. Amongst the many activities of the club, highlights for me were having accounting and finance professionals come speak at Humboldt and the opportunity to visit local businesses on facility tours.”

About the IMA and Humboldt partnership

Cal Poly Humboldt School of Business is one of thirty programs nationally endorsed by the IMA (Institute of Management Accountants), one of the largest and most respected associations focused exclusively on advancing the management accounting profession. IMA’s Endorsement of Higher Education initiative recognizes programs that meet high educational standards, enabling students to pursue extracurricular activities and earn the Certified Management Accountant (CMA) credential.   IMA’s globally-recognized CMA program is a relevant assessment of advanced accounting and financial management knowledge in four areas: financial planning, analysis, control and decision support – each of which is increasingly critical in meeting the changing needs of business, and therefore, essential learning for students of accounting and finance.  As an academically accredited program, Humboldt students are afforded opportunities to network with other students from top-ranked business programs, such as Penn State, Brigham Young University, Rutger's, Michigan State University, and St. John's University, at events like the Student Leadership Conference Andrew participated in.