Annual Meeting Awards

History of Best Practices

Deloitte has been the proud sponsor of the Best Practices program at both the regional and national levels since 2001. Their sponsorship of this program is intended to encourage students to develop and execute programs that promote awareness and student involvement in projects that exemplify values shared by Beta Alpha Psi and Deloitte. These values are captured and promoted through the topics announced each year revolving around ethics, corporate responsibility, diversity, increasing awareness of the accounting profession, skills-based volunteerism, and globalization.  

Every chapter has the opportunity to compete in the regional meeting best practices competition. Then each first-place regional meeting winner is invited to compete at the annual meeting.   

To date, there have been over 800 individual and team presentations at the regional and international levels and nearly $500,000 awarded to Beta Alpha Psi chapters to support chapter operations, scholarships, and the continuation of best practices projects.  

Each chapter has the opportunity to compete in the regional meeting competitions, and each first-place winner will be invited to compete at the annual meeting. Thank you as well to all the Professional Partners and Board Members who judged these presentations. 

History of Ethics Award

Sponsored by Grant Thornton LLP since 2010, the purpose of this award is to help encourage ethical behavior throughout the accounting, finance and information technology professions. The business world has experienced the ethical failures of many individuals and organizations in the accounting and finance profession over the past decade. These actions have had detrimental and lasting effects on the economy and individual investors and have damaged the reputation of information professions.

It is a core value of Beta Alpha Psi to encourage ethical behavior. One way to encourage this behavior is to examine difficult situations demanding ethical responses and by recognizing the resulting exemplary ethical behavior by individuals and/or organizations in the professions, government, business, academia and not-for-profits. Chapters submit an abstract for a planned project that encourages ethical behavior and a summary with outcomes and an overall assessment after the project is completed.

To date, Grant Thornton has given over $140,000 to award recipients.

History of Inclusive Leadership Award

An inclusive work environment that values and leverages the unique differences of a diverse team is critical for the future success of the global business community. More than 90 percent of the Fortune 500 companies have active diversity initiatives in place and most include diversity as part of its business strategy. EY leadership fully understands the importance of an inclusive environment that values the contributions of its entire people. The firm believes that a key element of effective teaming is the diversity of thought generated from team members from different backgrounds and perspectives. Highly effective leaders are those who are experienced at leading diverse teams. EY also believes that it is important for future leaders of the business community to have a great appreciation and understanding of how to successfully team in a diverse and inclusive environment. Accordingly, EY has created the Ernst & Young LLP Inclusive Leadership Award.

The competition began in 2007 as the Diversity Initiative and in 2014 the award was renamed to the Inclusive Leadership Award to include a global perspective.

Ken Bouyer, Americas Director of Inclusiveness Recruiting at EY said: “I couldn’t be more happy to continue our long standing relationship with Beta Alpha Psi.  Both personally, as a past International President of BAP; and as a representative of EY, I value the opportunity to invest in talented students.  EY is always looking for students who demonstrate academic excellence, integrity, service and a commitment to diversity and inclusion; and I can’t think of a better representation of all of those qualities than Beta Alpha Psi.”

To date, EY has given over $140,000 to award recipients.

History of Project Run With It (PRWI)

Sponsored by the Moss Adams Foundation, Project Run With It (PRWI) involves about 100 Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) chapter members working together during the BAP Annual Meeting to develop solutions to real life business problems of not-for-profit (NFP) organizations. PRWI was inspired by Moss Adams’ longstanding commitment to volunteerism and community engagement. PRWI provides Beta Alpha Psi members with the opportunity to carry on this legacy as they empower nonprofits to fulfill their missions and better serve their local communities.  

The students work in teams of four and have about one day to develop a formal presentation showcasing their solution to the business issues presented by the NFPs in their “request for proposal” for consulting services.  PRWI is a high intensity, compressed competition that is meant to provide participating students a totally unique experience.  Despite the intensity and time-sensitive nature of the competition, students often comment on the intangible rewards of participating and count it as an enriching component of their overall Beta Alpha Psi experience.  Students also note that the competition is an ideal platform to fortify classroom knowledge and implement that knowledge in providing solutions to real issues.  A past participating student from University of Alabama, said this: “Knowing that my work, as a student, can be used in the real-world is very inspiring!  It is very exciting to meet new people and to work with them towards a common goal. Win or lose, this is truly a fun experience which I learned a lot from.”

Moss Adams Partner, Corinne Baughman, said this about the competition: “I have been fortunate to be involved with PRWI since it all started.  As a board member of the Moss Adams Foundation, it is one of my most favorite opportunities I receive each year to be a judge for the competition.  The students are always so professional, well-prepared and engaging and the charitable groups are so thankful for the help they receive.  It is truly amazing to see how these two groups help each other meet their goals!”

Since inception in 2008, over seven-hundred students have participated and $127,000 has been awarded to chapters whose students have placed on the winning teams.  

For a more detailed list of each schools awards, CLICK HERE.

Please see the sections below, organized by region, for a breakdown of each schools' award winnings at the annual meetings between 2000-2019.