Notes from my first day of school

My first class was Accounting. I have to admit, I was rather excited for this class, as I have been studying nonprofit finance and accounting practices for some time now, both for my nonprofit management classes at PSU and also for my part time job as a bookkeeper with a nonprofit crisis line. Walking into the room I scanned for faces, bodies, or attire that might look slightly like mine. Nothing. A sea of white, male faces, mostly late 20s to early 40s in age. I notice one girl sitting in the row in front of me whose athletic attire and casual ponytail make me think she might be gay. A few minutes later we learn that she is an undergrad, and in the wrong class. She leaves.

The professor, a lively 40s something woman with curly hair, walks in and begins to introduce the class. She explains that, judging from the information we all emailed to her about ourselves, within our class there is a huge range of background experience, previous knowledge, and interest areas. This will be a difficult class to teach, she tells us, and promises to do her best keeping us all interested and up to speed. She says nothing about nonprofits being one of the interest areas she will cater to (even after my email to her, telling her about my interest and experience in the nonprofit sector).

She launches into the subject matter. "What is a balance sheet? A cash flow statement?", she quizzes us. Asking us to yell out any other names of financial statements we know, I add "A Statement of Activities." A Statement of Activities, I learned in my nonprofit classes at PSU as well as from my independent study of nonprofit accounting, is what the nonprofit sector most commonly calls its first and foremost financial statement: the profit and loss statement. "Um, I don't know about that one," my professor states. My heart sinks.

After reconciling myself to the fact that I am about to learn a lot about stocks and bonds and shareholders equity, and very little about anything nonprofit related, I join my small group for an in class activity. We are supposed to read a short word problem, solving it by setting up a rudimentary balance sheet with our pencils and paper. After explaining why depreciation is a contra asset account and not a liability, I lead my small team through the steps of our assignment. Business school or not, it seems, somethings never change.