Meet Our Students

Leanne Fredericks
Bank treasurer

Online MAC student Leanne Fredericks is already a business leader, serving as Treasurer of BNC Bank. Her MAC degree is going to give her so much more: deep insight into advanced financial principles and leadership skills that will make her an even bigger asset for her organization.

Leanne chose UNC Kenan-Flagler for its powerful reputation, putting it ahead of Duke, UVA, and others, and chose our online format because it afforded her the flexibility of taking courses while continuing to work. Leanne, we’re glad you did.

• Find out what it takes to join Leanne
• Hear Leanne's perspective on the online format

Leanne Fredericks
Bank treasurer

The online format was the perfect choice for a busy banker as it afforded her the opportunity to earn her MAC degree while continuing to build her career.

• Find out what it takes to join Leanne
• Hear how Leanne leverages what she learns

Allison Elia Wisely
Director of operations

Allison Elia Wisely works as the director of operations for a non-profit organization that provides after-school care in inner-city Columbus, Ohio.

She’s also a student in the online format of our Master of Accounting Program. Why? Because, as Allison notes, “at the end of the day, a non-profit is still a business” and businesses thrive on the efficiency that accounting principles unlock.

Allison is an example of a working-professional student who is putting her newly learned accounting skills and knowledge to work right away to make a difference in the organization she serves and the community in which she lives.

• Find out what it takes to join Allison
• Learn how Allison is making a difference in her community

Allison Elia
Director of operations

Young students in Columbus, Ohio, are making a difference in their community, one penny at a time. The children in the After-School All-Stars program run a small venture selling lemonade near their school and donate the profits to other local non-profit organizations.

At the same time, After-School All-Stars is making a difference in the lives of these kids, providing free daycare to families who could not otherwise afford it. At the center of this organization is Allison Elia, a UNC MAC student who works as the director of operations. Allison is putting her newly learned accounting skills and knowledge to work to help After-School All-Stars spend its grant funding efficiently to, in turn, maximize its impact for the children it serves.

• Find out what it takes to join Allison
• Learn why Allison pursued her Master of Accounting degree online

Mark Loyd
School teacher

Online MAC student Mark Loyd is a high-school English teacher in Clover, South Carolina, just outside Charlotte. While Mark loved teaching, he was looking for a career step that would allow for ongoing growth and stability. Enter accounting, and the online format of the UNC MAC Program.

With no prerequisite courses, Mark was able to jump in and immediately start earning credits toward his degree. More importantly, the flexible nature of the program allowed him to balance the demands of a full-time job, a growing family, and his studies.

• Find out what it takes to join Mark

Mikhail Wright
Army veteran

Long days in serving in the Army, then long nights as a single dad. Online MAC student Mikhail Wright wanted a new career for himself and a better life for his son. He found it in accounting…and the UNC Master of Accounting Program.

With evening classes, open testing windows, and a flexible pace, Mikhail to earned his degree around his busy schedule and made an impression with recruiters from several major accounting firms who were looking to hire students from the program.

• Find out what it takes to join Mikhail

Brad Bertinot
U.S. army major

Online MAC student and U.S. Army Major Brad Bertinot served tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Korea, among other locations. Now, he’s turning his sights on a new destination: the accounting profession. Brad was already a leader; now he’s adding new skills in financial management, tax strategy, and auditing to his already full resume.

Brad, like many military personnel, needed the flexibility to take courses from any location. The online format of UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Master of Accounting Program offered just that, plus a reputation for excellence and a recruiting engine that puts 98% of its graduates — including Brad — to work within three months of graduating.

• Find out what it takes to join Brad
• Hear Brad discuss collaboration in the online classroom

Brad Bertinot
U.S. army major

MAC student Brad Bertinot describes what makes our online format truly unique — the face-to-face collaboration and rich connections that students make through our remarkable online classroom.

• Find out what it takes to join Brad

Dominique Stephenson
MBA + MAC

UNC MAC student Dominique Stephenson already has professional work experience and her MBA. So why add a Master of Accounting degree? For Dominique, the MAC “opened up a world of potential for my future”.
Her story is not uncommon. While an MBA gives you breadth, it doesn’t go very deep. If you are interested in finance, and perhaps landing in a CFO role someday, listen to Dominique’s perspective on what the business world is really looking for…and why the MAC might be your next best step.

• Find out what it takes to join Dominique

Jack Song
From China to Chapel Hill

Growing up, Jack Song was a big Michael Jordan fan. Now, they share an alma mater. Jack grew up in China before majoring in chemistry at Penn State and has some excellent advice for his fellow international students and fellow science majors.

One of the unique things about UNC’s Master of Accounting Program is that it is designed for non-accounting majors. In fact, some of the program’s most successful graduates have started in educational backgrounds that are “far” from the business world — history, theology, physics, math, biology.

• Find out what it takes to join Jack

Anne Mendelsohn
From anthropology to accounting

From Australia to North Carolina and, soon, to Grant Thornton’s San Francisco office; from anthropology and history to accounting. UNC MAC student Anne Mendelsohn has traveled a great distance to meet her future within the accounting profession.

Anne leveraged critical thinking skills and found support from within the MAC Program’s diverse student body to successfully leap from a liberal-arts discipline to the accounting world. She, like her classmates, isn’t looking back.

• Find out what it takes to join Anne

Jay Patel
New York City expat

Jay Patel is from New York City. Born and raised in Queens, at work in Manhattan, but when it came time for him to choose a school to pursue his Master of Accounting degree, he decided on the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. It was bold move for Jay, but an important step to launch his career.

And, Jay found something that he never expected — a new family.

• Find out what it takes to join Jay

Brandon Ku
Accounting undergrad

You’ve earned your bachelor’s degree, been offered a great job in New York City. But family circumstances mean you can’t take that job, at least not right now. What do you do?

That’s the question Brandon Ku faced. He had earned a B.S. in accounting from Brigham Young University in April 2015 and got a job offer from Big 4 accounting firm EY last summer.

But a family illness and a desire to enable his wife to finish her degree led Ku to put his job offer on hold so he could stay in Utah with his wife and sons.

But that didn’t mean putting his career on hold. Instead, he’s accelerating it by earning a master of accounting degree online. That will allow him to earn his CPA sooner and learn advanced skills that will help him advance faster at work.

Though living in Utah, he picked UNC’s online MAC program. It came recommended by a mentor at EY and will help him build an East Coast professional network to match his New York job offer.

“The MAC program been challenging,” he says. “And, I’ve been learning a lot. I’ll take more MBA classes than just the normal accounting electives. It’s also been cool to interact with the MBA students. They’ve got so much experience.”

The online format and UNC’s flexibility was key.

“These opportunities would not have been available to me elsewhere,” he says. “The reason I’m able to do this MAC is because of the (online) format it’s in. It’s really going to allow me to take care of my family.”

• Find out what it takes to join Brandon

Travis Baten
Honey importer

What are the odds of finding a graduate program that meets these requirements?
– Leads to a great job right out of school.
– Can be finished in as little as 15 months.
– Enables you to continue caring for your family.

Travis Baten knows a thing or two about odds — he studied probability as a statistics major at Florida State University. He beat them when he discovered an online Master of Accounting (MAC) Program from UNC that met those requirements. He attends classes from Tallahassee, Fla., where he lives with his young daughter.
Baten was interested in law school, but three more years of school wasn’t in the cards for him right now. UNC’s 12-month online MAC was appealing.

“I felt I could start a career with the MAC degree,” he says.
Baten managed a social entrepreneurship business importing honey from Ghana, had taken accounting classes as an undergraduate, and worked at a loan referral company where he evaluated business financial statements.

“Accounting was something I did,” he says. “But it wasn’t a friend of mine.”

All that’s changed in the UNC MAC program. “The professors present the material so well,” he says.

The program’s online format fosters trust and accountability, Baten says, the same environment he expects to find on the job. And it allows him to maintain and strengthen relationships he made when he was on-campus for the immersion portion. He also knows he’ll have a job when he graduates.

“We interview with the recruiters before we have any grades for the program,” he says. “Employers trust the program.”

So does Baten. He’ll do a three-month internship to get some on-the-job experience, and plans to be working as an accountant.

• Find out what it takes to join Travis

Alexander Jackson
MAC Mentorship Program

Alexander Jackson will tell you, success is earned through choice, not by chance. Jackson grew up in Houston, where he was raised by his mother and grandmother. In his early elementary days, he was no stranger to getting into trouble and being suspended from school – yet he was constantly told that he was “just not being challenged academically.”

Fast forward, through determination, hard work, and mentorship opportunities, and you’ll meet an Alexander Jackson who has not only persevered, but has flourished as part of UNC’s Master of Accounting Program.

Jackson’s story is an inspiring one. He’s given back to the Boys & Girls Club, which played an important role in his development. He’s stayed involved with the MAC Mentorship Program, which earlier solidified his interest in pursuing an accounting career and earning his master’s degree.

He’s excited to start the next chapter of his life doing what he loves: accounting and giving back. And he already knows the most important advice he wants to share with his future mentees: do what you love.

After all, that’s what got him to where he is today.

“If you’re passionate about your work, it won’t seem like work,” says Jackson.

• Find out what it takes to join Alexander