Olivia Saputo and Ryan Cassette are two recent Detroit Mercy Titans, who will be receiving awards from the Detroit Chapter of Financial Executives International in February.
The Detroit FEI is an organization that provides unmatched opportunities for graduating seniors, interested in advancing their careers in finance or accounting. Each year two students from many different universities are nominated and win the award.
The chapter is known for ensuring success and delivering high-quality guest speakers and experience.
The award night is being held on Feb. 22 in Warren, Michigan, and hosted by Citizens Bank. During this time, the attendees with be served dinner along with many different keynote speakers.
Joe Eisenhauer, who is the Dean of the College of Business Administration, plays a large role for the students who receive the award.
“Prior recipients have gone on to serve as President of Liberty Capital Management, Vice President at Bank of America, Director of Financial Planning at General Motors, Senior Auditor at Deloitte, Financial Advisor at Plante Moran, and Portfolio Manager at Interocean Capital, to name just a few,” Eisenhauer said.
With Saputo being one the recent graduates who is going to receive this award, she has a lot of good advice for students going down the same path.
Saputo started off her college career as a biology major but later switched to accounting. She then started an internship as a tax associate at Ford Estates. She has continued to work there since.
“Getting an internship if you can early on is very nice,” Saupto said. “Even just meeting people and connecting that way when it is time to get an internship or job, you have those connections already.”.
One of Saputo's biggest priorities was to do well in school. Prioritizing good grades is one of the pieces of advice that she gave to others looking to receive the award in the future.
“I tried to do very well in all of my accounting and finance classes,” she said. “I kind of made that a big priority going into it.”
To add to her already impressive resume, Saputo also joined an on-campus accounting group called Beta Alpha Psi.
This group is open to juniors and seniors looking for interaction opportunities among other participants.
“The main thing that really stood out was that I was the president of Beta Alpha Psi,” Saputo said.
While being a part of the organization, members will prepare surrounding citizens taxes for free which also helps with gaining experience for the future.
The Detroit FEI is an organization that helps prepare students for a long and successful future.
“This year’s recipients, Ryan Cassette and Olivia Saputo, are both excellent accountants, with extraordinarily bright futures ahead of them; I’m proud to count them among our alumni,” Eisenhauer said.
