Students in the University of Mississippi’s Patterson School of Accountancy have launched Mississippi’s first chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants. The chapter, which launched in 2013 and received its official charter earlier this year, has flourished.
Kyerra Moody, who graduated with a Bachelor of Accountancy in May, and Nicole Barnes, an accountancy major entering her senior year this fall, co-founded the Ole Miss chapter. The group met for the first time Sept. 9, 2013, and the national board approved its charter in February. Moody served as president, Barnes was vice president, and they had this to say during the school year:
As president of the chapter, words cannot express how excited and proud I am of the progress that Ole Miss NABA has made over the course of this year.
“As president of the chapter, words cannot express how excited and proud I am of the progress that Ole Miss NABA has made over the course of this year,” Moody said. “Starting from nothing, and against all odds, Nicole, the rest of the executive board and I have put in so much work and effort to become the first NABA chapter to be chartered in Mississippi.”
“I really hope this will increase the diversity in the accountancy school,” Barnes said. “Currently, we don’t have a lot of minority students or faculty. I hope this will help recruit students to the program and help them stay in the program.
“The biggest impact we’ve had so far is exposing students to professional development opportunities that they might not have had otherwise,” she said. “Just in this school year, we’ve had national partners from KPMG and Ernst & Young meet with NABA members. They’ve also come to campus for Beta Alpha Psi presentations.”
For more information about the UM chapter of NABA, email olemissnaba@gmail.com.