Ilitch School graduate qualifies for prestigious Elijah Watt Sells Award
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the national professional organization for Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), awards its Elijah Watt Sells Award annually to high-performing candidates who pass all four sections of the CPA exam on the first attempt and who obtain a cumulative average score above 95.5 across those four sections.
With an average score of 96.5, Mike Ilitch School of Business graduate Andy McAnelly has qualified and will receive the Elijah Watt Sells award next spring.
“Winning this award is important to me primarily because I want to bring glory to Jesus Christ,” he said. “In addition, I wanted to show how great of an accounting curriculum Wayne State has and that Wayne State accounting graduates are amongst the best and brightest. I really believe that Wayne State's accounting education is second to none, and me being blessed enough to win this award is a testament to that.”
McAnelly earned his B.S. in accounting from the Ilitch School in 2019 and his master's in accounting from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in May 2020. While at WSU, McAnelly was the treasurer of Beta Alpha Psi for three years and worked as an accounting tutor for two years in the Ilitch School’s accounting department.
McAnelly credits Ilitch School faculty members Deborah Jones, Deborah Habel, Alan Reinstein, Matthew Roling and Anthony Billings with helping him to develop the skills necessary to succeed on these exams.
McAnelly recently published a collection of tips for CPA exam success to his LinkedIn page. View the article here.
