Fostering the Future of Accounting and Auditing

Torpey White still remembers being in college and being asked if he was going to be a CPA.

“I said ‘Oh, yeah, sure,’” Torpey recalls. “But I had no idea what that was.”

Years would pass before he learned what a CPA does — and how gratifying a career in accounting and auditing could be. That’s why today, as a partner at the accounting firm Wipfli LLP, Torpey also serves as a liaison to West Chester University.

“It stuck with me that it’s important to help students understand what opportunities can open up to you,” Torpey says. “It’s a way to spread awareness that the accounting and auditing field is viable and rewarding, beyond the number crunching a lot of people think accountants do.”

Through the Wipfli Foundation, Torpey works with the WCU Foundation to support an accounting scholarship, as well as the Wipfli Ethics Case Competition.

Around 125 WCU students take part in the competition each year, working as teams to present a case about an ethics issue. Torpey and his Wipfli colleagues serve as judges — and award cash prizes.

Thanks to the competition — as well as Wipfli’s participation in WCU’s Meet the Firms Night and Torpey’s role on the University’s Accounting Advisory Council — Wipfli has established a strong pipeline of WCU talent.

Torpey estimates in the past five years, around 20 WCU interns have been hired full time at Wipfli.

“They seem more prepared than some of the other students,” he says. “They take a liking to what we’re doing. And when you see that kind of success, you just want to foster it even more.”

For Wipfli, that’s meant success recruiting against bigger firms with larger teams. But Torpey says on a larger scale, supporting students simply makes sense.

“You’re investing in the student, but you’re also investing in the future of the business world and education,” Torpey says. “Today’s WCU students will be leading the country in 20 years. Why wouldn’t you tell them, ‘I believe in you — go change the world’?”