When she joined the University of Oregon’s Master of Accounting (MAcc) program in 2019, Tho Pham’s portfolio was already bursting with accounting experience.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from Virginia’s Old Dominion University, Pham took a gap year to gain real-world accounting experience and decided to focus on a career in audit. After hearing great things about the University of Oregon and its MAcc program, Pham applied and was accepted.
“What I like about the MAcc program is the tight-knit cohort, reputable and dedicated professors, and career opportunities. There is a lot of thought and effort put into the curriculum and professional development that help students become more employable and competitive in the job market,” she said.
Pham fully immersed herself in everything she could, taking on three part-time jobs, joining the Oregon Society of CPAs, and earning a QuickBooks ProAdvisor certification. She’s also currently serving as an accounting expert for Study.com.
Despite this heavy workload, Pham made the Dean’s List and still found time to volunteer for both the Duck Corps—the university’s volunteer service—and for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, a free tax-return preparation service coordinated by the UO chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, the international accounting and finance honor society.
“I learned lots of advanced accounting, but more importantly, how to manage time, collaborate, think critically, and solve problems,” Pham said of her time in the MAcc program.
She has already passed several sections of the CPA exam and will complete the remaining sections later this year. In September 2020, she’ll begin a full-time position as an audit associate in Deloitte’s San Jose office and is looking forward to learning more about the startup ecosystem in the Bay Area.
“The MAcc cohort is the most diverse, hard-working, and smartest group of individuals that I know,” Pham said. “We’ve all come so far, and yet this is only the beginning. The road ahead may seem scary, the challenges insurmountable, but with courage and determination, we will rise above it. Our beloved family, friends, and professors will always be there vouching for us, and I know we will make them proud.”
—Amanda Miner, Lundquist College Communications