Olin Business School doctoral student Michael McLaughlin is a recipient of the 2010 Doctoral Fellowship in Accounting presented by the Deloitte Foundation.
The $25,000 grant is given in the final year of coursework and designed to support the doctoral candidates through completion of their dissertation. One hundred academic institutions are invited to nominate their top students for the prestigious fellowships. WUSTL’s McLaughlin is one of 10 students from across the country to receive the honor.
“The accounting profession today is faced with a shortage of PhD-qualified accounting faculty,” says Rodney Kinzinger, St. Louis office managing partner, Deloitte LLP. “We at Deloitte are proud that these grants help to ensure that there are future teachers in the pipeline and we believe that these award recipients will play an important role in developing the next generation of accounting leaders.”
Kinzinger presented McLaughlin with a plaque April 7 at a luncheon in his honor held at the Charles F. Knight Executive Education and Conference Center on the Danforth Campus.
Mahendra Gupta, PhD, dean of Olin Business School and the Geraldine J. & Robert L. Virgil Professor of Accounting and Management, congratulated McLaughlin on his honor and praised the Deloitte Foundation “for its significant, longstanding support of doctoral students, and by so doing, investing in the important role that business schools, like Olin, and their faculty play in creating knowledge, inspiring individuals and transforming business.”
The Deloitte Foundation has supported one thousand doctoral students over the past two decades with its fellowship grants.
From adversity to academia
McLaughlin’s personal story is inspiring. He points to the scar on his forehead and says, “I had what you might call an unconventional childhood.”
He’s not a wizard like the fictional Harry Potter, but McLaughlin’s story of overcoming years of physical abuse and financial hardship to pursue an education to the doctoral level does seem almost magical. It’s a tale of sheer determination and very hard work; no fairy godmothers or witchcraft involved.
McLaughlin escaped from an abusive home at 16 and became a ward of the state. He bounced from foster family to relatives until he decided to go it alone, living in a car at a truck stop in Joliet, Ill., near a high school in order to graduate. Then he moved to a pup tent at a campground until he could afford a broken-down camper that provided shelter but no heat.
All the time, his goal was to keep going to school. He supported himself with odd jobs and by refereeing high school games in a variety of sports at nights and on weekends. As a ward of the state, he was able to attend community college, tuition-free, for a year and a half.
McLaughlin recounts his harrowing tale with good-hearted laughs and some disbelief at the fact that today, at 29, he is in the final stretch of completing a doctorate in accounting and launching an academic career of research and teaching.
A job in advertising sales, on commission, became his ticket to college. He worked for two years straight, saving $50,000 and headed to Illinois State University (ISU). While majoring in history, McLaughlin’s sights already were set on graduate school. He thought he wanted an MBA but says he got talked into a master’s degree in accounting, thinking it would be a good profession.
“In my very first accounting course, I realized this is what I had been looking for,” McLaughlin says. He graduated top of his class at ISU, becoming a certified public accountant along the way and getting encouragement from his ISU professors to apply to Olin’s doctoral program.
McLaughlin’s enthusiasm for his studies is palpable.
“I am so happy to be at Washington University,” he says. “There are people who would probably amputate a leg to go to college here. And here I am. I’m doing a job I love.”
McLaughlin is grateful for his position as one of five accounting doctoral students at Olin. He says he is “living a dream.”
As for the Deloitte fellowship, McLaughlin gives all the credit to his adviser, Richard Frankel, PhD, professor of accounting, and the accounting faculty. “This award really reflects on them and the amazing job they do mentoring, teaching and encouraging us,” McLaughlin says.
“Michael exemplifies the necessary qualities for success,” Frankel says. “He consistently works hard and shows perseverance. These qualities along with his intelligence and enthusiasm to understand how accounting affects business decisions give him the potential to be an outstanding scholar in our field.”
McLaughlin already has submitted a paper for publication and says he loves finding topics that require investigation. “I like research and thinking,” he says. “It’s about solving problems and finding real solutions for business. Some people might think accounting is boring, but it’s actually interesting and very useful.”
Ronald R. King, PhD, the Myron Northrop Professor of Accounting and senior associate dean, says McLaughlin’s career is off to a good start. “I find him to be one of the most committed and focused PhD students I have known,” King says. “He is truly investing in lifetime learning and growing his human capital.
“He will make Olin proud as his career evolves,” King says.
Says McLaughlin: “I hope that someday I can use my story to show other kids who have had difficult childhoods that there is hope for them and that they don’t have to remain trapped in a cycle of abuse.
“I think the moral of the story is that if you don’t let your past define you or bring you down, you can move forward and follow your dreams,” McLaughlin says.