An LYIT student has won a major accountancy award.
Grainne Boland was the runner-up in the CPA (Certified Public Accountants) All Ireland competition
Grainne, from St. Johnston, is student of LYIT after returning to education in 2009, and seized the opportunity with both hands as she decided to follow her dream of becoming an accountancy professional.
Dedicating herself to her studies, she achieved a First Class Honours Degree in Accounting from LYIT. She also has an Ordinary Degree in Accounting and a BTEC HND in Marketing from the North West Institute.
Hundreds of hopefuls entered a CPA competition and five finalists were chosen to present in front of a panel of expert judges who picked the ultimate winner. The interviewing panel consisted of Marc O’Dwyer, CEO of Big Red Book, Alex Fisher, Vice President Training Skills, State Street and Niall Byrne, Vice President, CPA who questioned the finalists on why they wanted to become members of the CPA and the accountancy profession in general.
“In my opinion, principles including integrity, honesty, trustworthiness, respectfulness and loyalty are fundamental to the accounting profession. It has taken courage to return to education to pursue my dreams, but it has definitely been worthwhile and I look forward to the day when I can refer to myself as a professional CPA.” Said Grainne.
Grainne also represented LYIT when she was part of the team along with Declan Hegarty, Ursula Molloy and Peter Mameev who competed in the CIMA Global Challenge with the winning team representing Ireland in the World Challenge in China.
Unfortunately for the Letterkenny team they earned a very worthy second place.
Grainne returned to LYIT in September to continue her studies for a Masters in Accounting, after which she plans to pursue a CPA qualification.