PPG Invites Advanced Accounting Students to Tour its Headquarters Monday, November 25, 2019
“I greatly enjoyed the trip to PPG and meeting professionals working in the field I am studying. They provided a lot of insight on how what we are taught in class transfers to actual career experiences and decisions around acquisitions and corporate structure."
Fortune 500 company PPG Industries, Inc., recently welcomed Point Park University’s Advanced Accounting class to its headquarters, located just steps from campus at One PPG Place in Downtown Pittsburgh.
The students met with Erin McGroarty, PPG’s director of financial reporting, who manages a team responsible for the company’s SEC reporting and Annual Form 10-K, the primary report to shareholders which explains PPG’s key business activities and financial performance.
“It was exciting for our students to visit PPG because the company is very active in the main concept areas of our Advanced Accounting course such as mergers and acquisitions, corporate divestitures and SEC reporting. It was my hope that the PPG visit would help students better visualize themselves applying course material in the real world,” explained Jayne Olshanski, MBA, CPA, assistant professor of accounting.
“I greatly enjoyed the trip to PPG and meeting professionals working in the field I am studying. They provided a lot of insight on how what we are taught in class transfers to actual career experiences and decisions around acquisitions and corporate structure,” said Malaki Davis, a senior accounting major from City Charter High School in Pittsburgh.
“I am thankful to Professor Olshanski for planning the visit to PPG so that we could see how to apply the complex accounting concepts learned in the classroom to real-world situations. Ms. McGroarty gave us in-depth insight into PPG’s financial operations, management and SEC filings. Also, the tour of PPG’s executive board rooms on the 40th floor was amazing. I was taken aback by the breath-taking views of our beautiful city from every angle,” said Preet Mann, a senior international accounting student.
Mann will graduate this December and has already landed a tax analyst position with top regional accounting firm Schneider Downs.
Connor Wright, also a senior accounting major, was interested to hear about the proposed split off that would have created separate legal entities for PPG's industrial and architectural line of products.
“It was fascinating to hear about the driving forces motivating PPG to look into doing this, and ultimately, what led them to decide not to go forward with the plan and stay as one unified company,” said Wright, a graduate of Maysville High School in Zanesville, Ohio.
“Our students participated in the dialog and asked questions that demonstrated their clear understanding of the accounting topics discussed. I was proud of our students’ ability to readily engage in accounting discussions with senior accounting professionals like Erin. It is activities like this field trip that help students appreciate the benefits of attending an urban, community-engaged university like Point Park,” Olshanski said.
Davis added: “I chose Point Park for several reasons, one of them being the ACAP program, which made me consider the accounting field as a career option. Point Park’s closeness to home and the diversity and culture of the University helped me make my final decision. I made a great choice. All of my faculty and classes have given me a vision for my future and have provided me with the knowledge and skill sets to achieve that vision.”