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EMU accounting professor has students gain real-world experience through Academic Service-Learning projects

Ypsilanti entrepreneur Merrill Guerra has a growing business with RealKidz Clothing. And a growing need for accounting help as the company, which makes and sells a line of stylish plus-size clothes for girls age 5-12, gains momentum.

But, like many small business owners, she's wedged between getting the right help and keeping costs down. And that's where Howard Bunsis, an Eastern Michigan University accounting professor, and his graduate students come in.

BALANCING THE BOOKS: Merrill Guerra (center),
owner of Realkidz Clothing in Ypsilanti, looks over
accounting documents for her business that were
generated by Eastern Michigan University MBA
students (above, left) Deepti Manjeshwar, of Ann
Arbor, and Helen Riley of Canton. The students, part
of an Accounting 696 class involved with Academic
Service-Learning projects, are working with Guerra
to standardize her accounting and find ways to better
manage her inventory and books.

Three of Bunsis's graduate students are working with Guerra to standardize her accounting and find ways to better manage her inventory and books. It's one of nine Academic Service-Learning projects underway with students from Bunsis's fall/winter Accounting 696 class, and an opportunity for accounting students to fill a real need in the community.

"I always tell students there's a simple goal — that the student is better off for having the real-world experience and that they make the organization of the firm better off because of their involvement," said Bunsis, who has been running service-learning projects since he came to EMU 11 years ago.

Bunsis tries to select projects that represent a range of nonprofit, for-profit and university clients, and said the best projects are the ones that help organizations that are just starting out to set up a stable accounting system.