One alum aims to put the ‘fun’ in accounting fundamentals
- Laurie D. Babcock
- Alumni, Featured, News
- Contributors: James Greco, Photos
6 – minute read
Megan Clipse knows accountants get stereotyped. Strictly business, no joking around — especially this time of year: tax season.
“A common misconception with accounting and accountants is that we’re boring,” she says.
Clipse was headed down the road to cranking out tax returns every April before she veered off on a different path, one that led to her current role as senior director of the University Budget Office at Florida Gulf Coast University. She still wants everyone to know that accounting — if not tax filing — can be fun.
“The important part for me is to show everyone we’re more than just number crunchers,” she says. “Numbers can be boring, and I know they don’t speak to everybody. So when we can add some sort of fun element into it — that maybe does get people more engaged in what we’re doing. That’s the part that I like.”
As evidence, she produces a photo from several years ago when she worked as a budget analyst at FGCU. It shows her and her boss at the time, David Vazquez, dressed in black and white striped shirts, their eyes masked and their heads covered in black caps. Carrying money bags, they look like bank robbers from an old comic strip.
“That was the year we were ‘budget bandits,’” Clipse says. For several years, they were a two-person operation and took Halloween seriously — by having fun.
Another photo shows them wearing bow ties and eyeglasses taped in the middle.
“We were ‘budget nerds,’” she says. Nerds who also made JibJabs around winter break (“Have no fear, it’s just another fiscal year”).
A career change at the beginning of her career
When Clipse started her undergraduate degree at FGCU, she was convinced she was going to be an accountant.
“I was going to sit at a desk and punch numbers, do tax returns — that was it,” she says. “Going into the MBA program allowed me to broaden my horizons, dabble in finance and economics and explore the other areas of business, but still with a concentration on accounting.”
The double Eagle (’11, bachelor’s, accounting; ’13, MBA) worked as a student assistant in the Lutgert College of Business budget office to make a little extra money while finishing her degree. When a full-time budget analyst position opened at the university level, she applied and was hired.
She worked directly under Vazquez then. When he was promoted to vice president of Administrative Services and Finance in 2021, Clipse was promoted, too.
“Having that all-around view on business really helped because my current role entails aspects from all those different areas,” Clipse says. “The MBA definitely helped get me here.”
Now her passion for financial principles and her leadership in the University Budget Office allow her to impact the university’s present and future in a new role — that of adjunct faculty.
‘For the love of accounting’
Teaching Introduction to Financial Accounting wasn’t something she sought out. Tanya Benford, a professor and chair of the accounting department in the Lutgert College of Business, approached Clipse to serve as an adjunct — “for the love of accounting,” Clipse says.
Initially, she hesitated — but now she’s glad she took the leap.
“When students ask, ‘When am I ever going to apply this?’ I can always give them an example. I tell them, ‘I’m seeing this stuff in my everyday job, so you have to know these pieces even though it may not be the major you fall under,’” she says. “Most of them have jobs, so I try to relate some of the material back to their own personal finances, too.”
Her ability to apply theory to real-world scenarios gives her students a practical, hands-on learning experience.
“We’re not doing complicated math here. Accounting is basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It’s really about understanding concepts and the fundamentals. And then there’s just a little bit of math involved.”
Clipse also tries to bring a little fun into class, as with her themed Halloween costumes. She drops memes pairing accounting fundamentals with pop culture references from “The Shining” or “The Mandalorian,” for instance.
“I’d like to think I’m still kind of hip and trendy. But with my students, I realize the age gap is growing,” she says.
Making money matters meaningful
Does she have any financial advice for students?
“Put away what you can as soon as possible, because it’s only going to grow as time goes on,” she says. “If they take my class, they’ll learn that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar in the future because you can invest it (today).”
They might also learn from her own story of saving for something she really wanted — an example students can probably relate to.
“A couple of months after I finished grad school, I went and bought my Mustang,” she says. “I budgeted. I put money aside. I made it happen. That’s my little pride and joy now, Stella. That is my dream car.”
