By Lauryn Jelsema, Culture Editor
On April 22, the AQ Accounting and Finance Club held its 12th annual Debits vs. Credits event in Wege Ballroom.
Every year, the event has a theme based on one of the sports teams at Aquinas; this year’s theme was “rugby.” Past years have included baseball, golf, hockey etc.
The first round of Debits vs. Credits – Photo by Anastasia Bestead
The event had an engaging atmosphere and featured free food, trivia and raffle prizes.
Both current accounting students and alumni are invited to team up and compete in a fast-paced, high-tech game that tests their financial knowledge, problem-solving, and communication skills. This year, there were a total of three teams, each comprising 5 people: the Wallabies, Springbox and the Kiwis.
The first round consisted of true or false questions asked in categories such as finance, management and intermediate. Sr. Maureen Geary asked the questions for the first round. The Kiwis were the only group that answered incorrectly during the round.
Sr. Maureen asking players true or false questions on finances – Photo by Anastasia Benstead
A tax category was introduced for the first time in the history of the games; and Springbox was the only team to get the first of its questions correct.
If a team answers incorrectly during the game, their question is given to the opposing teams, raising the stakes. The first round concluded with the Kiwis scoring 5 points, the Wallabies 8 and Springbox leading with 11 points.
For the second round, each individual submitted an answer and each team received a point for the number of players on their team who guessed correctly.
By half-time Springbox remained in the lead with 49 points.
Also during halftime, Dr. Kevin Cantley, AQ’s assistant professor of accounting, hosted rugby trivia. This short game gave attendees not affiliated with accounting a chance to participate. Questions included “what is a try?”; “when does a scrum happen?”; and “what shape is the ball?” This was individual trivia rather than a group, and answers were reported to Cantley through collected paper slips. The tie-breaker question was “which two teams played in the 2023 World Series and what was the score?” Students David Jensen and Tray Mathis tied as the winners.
“I came today to support accounting professors and students,” senior Troy Borrero said. “It was really interesting to see the different people that came to the event. It wasn’t all just business or accounting people.”
Protein Pints, which are high-protein pints of ice cream, were offered to attendees courtesy of Paul Reiss, a former accounting student at Aquinas and co-founder of the ice cream company.
“I decided to flip my life 180,” said Reiss when he spoke briefly about the creation of Protein Pints during the intermission. “We became the fastest growing company in the United States.”
The second round began and followed a similar order in categories as the first: finance, management, intermediate, and two tax questions.
A rugby ball was placed on the table of whatever team’s turn it was. That team had 30 seconds to answer, and if the question was answered incorrectly, the rugby ball would be passed to the next team.
Getting a question right on the first try would result in a 5-point increase for any given team; however, the more times a question was answered incorrectly, its point value would decrease.
The final round was Jeopardy-style. The categories remained the same, but instead of dollar amounts the questions were labeled on a scale of difficulty. Teams received three times the amount of points for extreme questions, twice for average questions, and once for easy questions.
The Kiwis were in third, and got to select first. The team shocked the room by selecting Financial Extreme to kick off the Jeopardy round.
“And none for Grretchen Weiners,” Kara Turkstra, alum and co-host of the event, said, after the Kiwis got zero points for an Extreme Management question.
The game ended with Springbox at 98 points, the Kiwis at 103 and finally, the Wallabies in first place with 115 points.
Individual efforts were praised for studednt players Will, Ellen and Avery. Will won first place in this category for the second year in a row.
Kara Turkstra and Mary Fedewa accounting alumnus from ‘15 – Photo by Anastasia Bestead
The Saint 