Scholars Practicum
For my practicum, I was a volunteer for TerpTax. TerpTax is a non-profit affiliated with University of Maryland, College Park that provides free tax preparation services to low to mid-income individuals in the University of Maryland, College Park community according to VITA/TCE guidelines. My responsibilities as a volunteer included training and passing certifications in advanced and foreign student tax preparation and serving approximately 2-4 clients weekly. For each client I served, I would interview them based on the intake of their tax documents and then prepare their tax return while sharing my screen with them over Zoom.
How did you find/identify your practicum, and what advice you would give to future Media Scholars on identifying a practicum site?
During the spring semester of my freshman year, I had to take BMGT367F which was required for all freshmen in the Smith School of Business. This class was about career search strategies, and one of our assignments was to conduct an informational interview with someone in our career field of interest. As a double major in Accounting and Finance, I decided to interview a Tax Director at PwC (one of the big 4 accounting firms) who I met at a campus career fair and who happened to be a University of Maryland alumni. During the interview, I asked him how to best show interest in tax accounting, as that was the field I was looking to go into after graduation. He then told me about the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program as a great opportunity to gain experience in tax and show interest on my resume. After doing some research, I found that University of Maryland had a VITA chapter, TerpTax, and I reached out to one of the executive board members through LinkedIn asking about how to get involved.
I am very grateful for the great advice from my interviewee, and that the upperclassman I reached out to on LinkedIn was so willing to help me get involved. The advice I would give to future Media Scholars on identifying a practicum site is to look for something in your career field of interest, and don’t be afraid to reach out to people. I would not have found out about TerpTax without keeping the connection from a career fair and putting myself out there on LinkedIn. People at the University of Maryland, including alumni, are more than willing to help undergraduate students that show interest and take the time to do their research.
What did you learn from your practicum?
While I acquired technical skills during my internship, I also gained many valuable soft skills that will help me in everything I do. I learned the importance of asking questions when I need help. When I first started preparing tax returns, I had many questions for each client. Luckily, I had a very patient and knowledgeable Team Leader that would hop into my breakout room on Zoom whenever I had a question. However, since I was serving a client, asking questions was a little daunting as I didn’t want to come across to the client like I didn’t know what I was doing. I learned how to communicate more effectively with clients to reassure them in my abilities, but also let them know that I just wanted to confirm my question with the Team Leader to prepare their tax returns accurately.
Journal Entry Upload:
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Week 1: “Just had my first client that is a nonresident, and I did their whole return as if they were a resident and had to start over – don’t make that mistake again!”
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Last week: “Just did my first return for a client who is self-employed – had to make a Schedule C and deduct all relevant expenses. Love that what I’m learning in BMGT323 is applicable!”
How have you grown as a person, student, and/or professional?
Through my practicum, I have definitely grown as a person, student, and professional. As a person, I became more open and aware of different cultural backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, and humans in general. It was uncomfortable referring to someone as a “nonresident alien” when they are in the U.S. legally with a visa to get an education and better themselves. I grew as a person because I learned that regardless of our background or upbringing, it is important to keep in mind that we are all humans and deserve to be treated with respect.
I chose to upload these two journal entries as my evidence because I believe it shows my growth over the course of the internship. At first, I felt like a sponge just trying to soak up all of the information and knowledge I could about how to prepare individual income tax returns. By the end of the semester, I was still learning, but now being able to see my efforts in the classroom applied to my clients. TerpTax was a great learning experience, and I grew with each and every client I had.
As a student, I gained more appreciation for what I am learning in the classroom as I applied my knowledge with each client. In my journal entry for the last week, I had a client that was self-employed and it was my first time preparing that type of individual tax return. I had learned about how to prepare a Schedule C in my BMGT323 class (Taxation of Individuals), but it was so rewarding to actually apply what I learned to a client’s return.
Lastly, I have grown as a professional because I have learned how to carry myself in a professional setting and how to communicate with clients more effectively. As shown from the journal entry for my first week, I made a huge mistake on the client’s tax return that forced me to redo the entire return. I felt terrible for keeping the client for double the amount of time needed. From this mistake, I learned to keep a mental checklist of what to be careful of for our nonresident clients as there are variations in how those tax returns are prepared. This mistake enabled me to grow as a professional not only from the one mistake but from learning how to deal with all obstacles in a professional manner.
How can you apply your practicum experience to your life/career moving forward?
TerpTax was a great experience that will undoubtedly benefit me in my career, but also in life in general. Once I start working full-time, I will need to file my own tax returns. I now am confident that I have the knowledge and skills to do so. In addition, understanding taxes is relevant in all aspects of life. I now understand more aspects of government and politics, and I am confident that if I don’t understand a regulation, I can research the tax laws to figure it out.
I will also be able to apply my practicum experience to my career moving forward as I am planning to go into the tax accounting field. I currently have tax internships lined up for Summer 2021 and Summer 2022 with large public accounting firms to gain more experience in the industry. While most of the work I will be doing in my internships will be regarding corporate tax as opposed to individual tax, the basic concepts are similar, and I will be able to apply what I have learned from TerpTax. As for my remaining time at UMD, I am planning to graduate with a double major in Accounting and Finance in May of 2022. Following that, I intend to earn my Masters of Science in Accounting with a focus in taxation by May of 2023 to reach 150 credits so I can sit for the CPA.