OSCPA expands pipeline efforts with key partnerships

By Jessica Salerno-Shumaker, OSCPA senior content manager  

OSCPA is continuing its commitment to expand and diversify the accounting pipeline through recent partnerships with the Center for Audit Quality and Junior Achievement.  

OSCPA has partnered with the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) on the “Bold Ambition” initiative. The initiative’s goal is to increase diversity in accounting and it offers a robust social media campaign with videos, checklists, toolkits and more to connect with high school and college students.  

This partnership is part of a commitment made in 2020 by Society President & CEO Scott Wiley, CAE, to fight racism and help create a business environment that offers equal opportunity to all. The plan consists of CEO leadership, organizational commitment – which includes a $100,000 pledge for initiatives distributed over a five-year period – and advancing public policy.   

By investing in “Bold Ambition,” said Tiffany Crosby, Ph.D., CPA, CGMA, chief learning officer, OSCPA can use its assets in Ohio to help increase accounting’s presence in key high schools. The OSCPA pipeline team has already started leveraging those assets at Accounting Career Days and with student ambassadors throughout the state.   
“This has essentially resourced us in a way that we could never have done on our own,” she said. “We could never have developed all of these assets ourselves; it would have taken us years.”

Through this partnership, OSCPA has gone from having a presence in 80 high schools to 168, with plans to be in 200 high schools in the near future. 
Another recent partnership made as part of this commitment has been with Junior Achievement of Northwest Ohio, through their newly designed program called “5th  Year: Real World Learning,” a nine-month program that allows recent high school graduates to explore professional opportunities before committing to a career path.  

“It specifically targets our market of high school grads,” Crosby said.  

It’s yet another exciting opportunity to expose accounting to students who might have not considered the opportunities and value the profession provides. 

“By investing in this we can show all of these students that are essentially undecided how accounting is an opportunity profession and its part of their curriculum,” Crosby said.  

If your organization is interested in being considered for a future investment through OSCPA’s pledge, please contact Tiffany Crosby.