Eric Grube, Volunteer Excellence Award
Rachel Kats | October/November 2022 Footnote
Editor's note: Updated September 30, 2022
Eric Grube’s path in accounting led him from work at a public firm, to small-business ownership to eventually becoming an accounting professor. It’s his latest move that led him to discover his favorite place in the profession is to help students find theirs.
It’s this drive to strengthen the CPA pipeline that helped him earn the MNCPA Volunteer Excellence Award, which honors those who have volunteered with the MNCPA for at least five years and provided leadership or significant contributions.
“The teaching part is where I can connect with a lot of young professionals who are thinking about accounting as a career and really impact them positively with having employers come to campus, talking them through their interests and impacting their lives.”
During his years of MNCPA membership, Eric has volunteered in many ways, including contributing articles to Footnote, and serving on the MNCPA Editorial Committee and the Management & Business Advisers Conference Committee.
However, the project nearest and dearest to him has been his work on the Auditing & Accounting Student Conference Committee and participation in the event, which he attends annually with several of his Concordia University, St. Paul students. He has also been a major advocate of getting MNCPA members into classrooms to discuss the CPA exam, certification and the organization.
“I think what I’m doing is critical for the profession,” he said. “I really like it and it fits me really well and I think that’s a theme that I stress with my students: It’s got to feel right.”
Taking chances and going with your gut is, in part, how Eric ended up becoming a professor. It started with the decision to further his education through the joint MNCPA and Metropolitan State MBA for CPAs program, and a chance happening across an ad for a part-time instructor. He has since received his Doctorate in Business Administration and just rounded out his sixth year as a full-time professor.
“I’ve gotten so much benefit out of my involvement with the society so I’m always trying to pass that along and provide advice,” he said.
When it comes to providing advice to his students, Eric says his efforts are split between teaching the fundamentals but also advising and preparing them for the challenges they’re bound to encounter in the world of work.
“I want them to know there’s going to be a steep learning curve and to prepare mentally for that,” he said. “You can’t remember everything; just listen to what people are telling you, be observant, be curious and ask questions.”
