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Field trip takes accounting class to Lambeau

EVANSVILLE — Connections on Lambeau Field bring cheers to crowds and boost athletic careers, but connections to the real world behind Packer games bring cheer to number crunchers and boost career interest for Wisconsin accounting students.

That’s what brought 35 Evansville High School students to the famous stadium earlier this month.

While highlights of the trip included walking on the stadium field and touring the Hall of Fame, the purpose of the career training was to link accounting to athletics. The group met with two certified public accountants: Green Bay Packers Vice President of Finance Vicki Vannieuwenhoven and Head Controller Duke Copp.

“Athletics is huge here in Evansville, so I thought if I could tie athletics to careers, kids would be interested,” business teacher Dana Hurda said.

The trip was made possible through a $1,200 grant Hurda received from the Wisconsin Institute of Certified Public Accountants Educational Foundation. Hurda was one of 21 teachers to receive an Accounting Careers Awareness Grant.

“Accountants get a bad rap,” she said. “People think they sit behind a desk all day in a cube and that’s just not how it is anymore.”

Students said the trip was a success and already are pushing Hurda to plan another trip.

Senior Trent Ampomah plans to attend UW-Whitewater in fall and likely will major in accounting. Talking with the Packers accountants was the highlight of the trip for him.

“You don’t get that chance every day,” he said. “I learned a lot about accounting, and it kind of made me want to go into it more.”

Hearing from people actually in the field was neat, senior Emily Grant said.

“It’s nice to hear from someone who actually does it,” she said.

“It’s not just the same job every day,” junior Cody Conaway said he learned. “There’s so many things that it wouldn’t be boring.”

For Packers fan Nathan Schafer, walking on the Frozen Tundra was exciting, but the trip also showed him how his love for sports could translate into a career.

“It connects what you want to possibly do in the future to something you really enjoy,” he said. “It lets people know that it’s not just sitting in a cubicle all day working with numbers. There’s actually more interesting jobs besides just that.”