The importance of understanding and applying sound accounting and business acumen for small businesses and nonprofits was highlighted at the inaugural ProConnect Competition at the Naveen Jindal School of Management.
The May 13 event featured “Shark Tank” style presentations from students from the spring 2025 MS in Accounting and Analytics (STEM) degree program. Cash prizes were awarded.
ProConnect is a program that provides a team of MS Accounting and Analytics students to work with businesses or nonprofits to find solutions to a problem or a challenge the organization faces, while also fulfilling the communications requirement for students planning to sit for the Certified Public Accounting (CPA) exam.
Organizations can partner with students on projects, particularly those that might have been on the back burner due to a lack of staff or time. For the organizations, there is the potential to save time and money with the pro bono service while getting assistance to find solutions to a problem or challenge. Students receive class credit for working on the projects and they gain valuable experience in real-world business situations. All projects have faculty oversight.
“Our focus is on nonprofits and small businesses who might be entrepreneurs and who don’t always love accounting — and our students love accounting,” said Mary Beth Goodrich, a professor of instruction in the Jindal School’s Accounting Area. “This semester, we had the rare opportunity to work alongside professionals that love accounting and support CPAs. Students completed eight projects with the Texas Society of CPAs (TXCPA).”
The competition was dedicated to the late James (Jim) Friedberg, a mentor at the Jindal School from 2012 until his passing in 2017. The Jim Friedberg ProConnect Opportunity Fund was established in his honor. He worked in a number of ways to support and encourage students, and particularly focused on making international students feel more comfortable and confident in their new surroundings.
The ProConnect Competition was created with Friedberg’s legacy in mind.
The department had raised money for the Friedberg ProConnect Opportunity Fund, which was supported by Dr. Hasan Pirkul, Caruth Chair and Jindal School dean, who matched the funds raised and making it an endowed program
“We wanted to do something meaningful with it and came up with this competition to inspire our students to step outside of their comfort zone,” Goodrich said.
Dr. Mark Thouin, associate dean for graduate programs, opened the competition by welcoming attendees and participants. He described the growth happening at the Jindal School, not only in enrollment, but also in facilities, with construction trucks and the sound of jackhammers across the campus.
When introducing the teams, Thouin pointed out that the students participating would soon be graduating.
“Yes, they are leaving,” he said, “but, before that happens, in a classroom setting like this, they get the chance to put what they’ve learned in class to use.”
Dr. William (Bill) Cready, Adolf Enthoven Distinguished Professor in Accounting and Information Management and area coordinator in the Accounting Area, also addressed attendees. Members of the JSOM Advisory Council and MS in Accounting and Analytics Advisory Board members were in attendance.
Eight student teams made presentations. Each was given three minutes to describe their project for judges, who then had two minutes to ask questions.
The panel of judges was composed of local professionals, including Stephen Friedberg, chief financial officer of Dialectic Therapeutics, and the son of Jim Friedberg; Lisa Ong, JSOM alumna, MS’14, and president and founder of Wishing Out Loud LLC; Elaine Zhou, director of Protiviti and a JSOM alumna; and Summer Jelinek, owner of Summer Speaks LLC.
The judges considered whether the team developed a creative and innovative solution to a business problem, if they were able to develop a relevant and executable solution to the problem, was effective in explaining and communicating the market relevance of their final recommendations; and if they developed outstanding visuals.
First-place and a $1,500 cash prize went to the “Sam’s and Co.” team. Team members were MS in Accounting and Analytics students Ravkiran Singh, Mary Rose Alfante, Margaret “Maggie” Moran, and Jonathan Sok.
Their four-month project was to assist the TXCPA in the creation of educational content for small nonprofit organizations. In this space, according to their report, knowledge of accounting and finance tends to be low due to limited funding and understaffing. That makes it more challenging for the organizations to receive funding, efficiently use financial resources, maintain nonprofit tax status and increase their impact.
Members of the Sams & Co. team each contributed 70 hours of work to the project, which included creating a course outline with learning objectives for an accounting training program that the TXCPA would develop. The team also created a marketing plan to reach out to potential course attendees, questions to include in a post-course completion survey and a 90-day follow-up survey.
“Our ProConnect project in collaboration with TXCPA was a rewarding experience,” Alfante said. “It gave me the opportunity to work closely with nonprofit experts and professionals and gain valuable insights from industry mentors. It was also a meaningful project, knowing that our work could have a significant impact on the nonprofit sector. I feel honored to have contributed to its success.”
Second-place and a $1,000 cash prize went to the “Report Busters” team, comprised of MS of Accounting and Analytics students Margaret Akomah-Zachary, Shelley Shi, Jarad Metcalf, and Bharathwajan Kesavan.
The team, also in collaboration with TXCPA, collected financial data of nine managed chapters (out of 20) to identify inefficiencies, propose enhancements and recommend streamlined, standardized reporting strategies to support each chapter. The focus was to improve accuracy, efficiency and strategic insight across the TXCPAs chapter financial reporting.
“Working on this project was a rewarding experience, as it combined data analysis, process improvement and creative problem-solving,” said Kesavan. “I was able to apply what I learned during the semester to a live project. As a cross-functional team, we are proud to have contributed to identifying inefficiencies in financial reporting and helping to develop standardized tools for benchmarking and chapter performance evaluation. Through this project, I strengthened my ability to collaborate across disciplines, deliver actionable insights and blend creativity with analytics.”
Third-place recognition and a $500 prize were awarded to the “Application Avengers.”
Team members were MS of Accounting and Analytics students Todd Stuart, Abdullah Mohammed, Kennedi Davis, Lirong Dai, and Zalak Dalia. Their project focused on improving the CPA license application process.
Over the ProConnect program’s history, 1,119 students have completed 255 projects, with 192 businesses submitting projects. The program has provided $1.5 million in value to the community.
“ProConnect has offered a great opportunity since 2015 for students to showcase their skills, receive résumé-worthy experience and build their network,” Goodrich said. “We likely will be working with FEI (Financial Executives Institute) in Spring 2026, similar to how we worked with TXCPA. I was able to network with Kendall Helfenbein, an officer of FEI, CFO and MS Accounting and Analytics board member at the event. ProConnect is about making connections, learning effective communication skills and applying knowledge. I am privileged to work in this capacity and observe students becoming consultants ‘one project at a time.’”
