northern today 8 spring 2014 Below, she answers questions about herself and about working at NSU: Q. What brought you to NSU? A. I worked in public accounting prior to entering academia. When I worked in public accounting, I was involved with the recruiting of new graduates. This allowed me to spend time visiting with graduating students on various campuses. I really enjoyed my interaction with new graduates and the college atmosphere. Also, while in public accounting, I trained and mentored new graduates who came to work for our company. Although training a new graduate in his or her position is a little different from teaching at the college level, it seemed like a great fit. Paul Everson, who is a retired accounting professor from NSU, also was a good friend and great mentor as I began my position at NSU. Q. What is the best part of your job? A. The best part of my job is interacting with the students and watching them as they mature and grow into successful adults. The accounting courses I teach allow me to see the students for the first time as freshmen or sophomores, and then again as juniors and seniors. I get to witness first-hand the increase in the students’ knowledge and confidence as they enter the work force. Part of our mission in the School of Business is to grow students into thoughtful business leaders of the future. This may sound a bit sappy, but, being part of that growth process in people’s lives makes me very happy. Q. What is your favorite class to teach and why? A. My favorite course that I like to teach is advanced accounting. This course is one of the last accounting courses that accounting majors will take before they graduate. By the time students get to this course, I have had them in several classes; therefore, I really have gotten to know the students and understand how they learn. Also, this is a course where the student fully understands the importance of accounting and how the financial statements of a company all fit together. Q. Do you have any family members you want to highlight? A. I am married and have two children. My son is a sophomore at North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D., majoring in mechanical engineering; and my daughter is a fourth-grader at Roncalli. Q. Are you involved with any organizations outside of work? A. I serve on some nonprofit boards that assist Native American tribes with becoming more self- sufficient in their accounting departments. One of the biggest issues tribes face is not having qualified accountants who are tribal members, and as a result, they spend millions on outside accountants and consultants. Part of the mission of the nonprofits is to develop tribal resources in order to allow the tribes to self- perform technical jobs such as accounting. Although we are in the initial stages in some of these initiatives, my hope and goal is to develop a pathway of training through Northern State. There is a real need out there and Northern State is extremely well-equipped to be a substantial contributing partner to accomplish some great things. We also have recently developed a partnership with the South Dakota Secretary of State to produce a quarterly economic journal that we are very proud of. Under the umbrella of growing our students into thoughtful future business leaders, our students, in addition to having the appropriate technical skill in their chosen field, will also have to be able to understand complex data sets, the macro and micro political economy and its future impacts to their companies, and interactions with government in order to be successful. We kind of hit three birds with one stone being involved with a project like this, not to mention the networking opportunities it gives our students and graduates. Q. Do you have any hobbies? A. When I am not working, I enjoy spending time with my children, traveling and gardening. northern news Dr. Sara Schmidt, assistant professor of accounting with the NSU School of Business, is in her sixth year of teaching at Northern. A native of Ray, N.D., Schmidt is a certified public accountant. She earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D., and her doctorate in education from the University of South Dakota. Q&A
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