The Student Accounting Association ended the year with a presentation on May 2 from Rina Irwin, the chief executive officer of Child Development Center, a nonprofit organization located in Oil City. This organization wants to help mothers get back to work and provide children with physical and mental health facilities at a young age. It provides child care and early education to children from six weeks of age to twelve years of age.
When Irwin started her career in accounting, she was an internal auditor. In this job, she said it was about 30 percent travel because you are visiting all the branches of the company. She went all across the country and into parts of Canada. This traveling was fun during her first couple years, but, once she started a family, she no longer wanted this type of lifestyle. This job gave her a lot of experience and insight that she still uses in her job today at the Child Development Center.
(Photo: Rina Irwin and Amber Nerlich)
When Irwin joined the team at the Child Development Center, the organization was about to declare bankruptcy. Irwin used skills that she learned from her previous jobs to help the organization make a new business plan and better manage their finances. She was able to add a new perspective to this organization with her accounting background, which was especially useful considering most of the employees had an education background. Irwin helped the organization grow from five to twelve locations, from 30 to 220 employees, and from 300 to 1100 children. The organization must follow 2200 regulations to get the grants that they do. However, by following these regulations, the company gets the funding to get children the education and care they need.
Irwin currently loves her job. From the start of her career, she wanted to be able to give back to the world, and working for a nonprofit lets her do that. Irwin puts in extra hours, and has started many additional programs to help low income families all year long. She emphasized to students that they should seek out a job that they intrinsically enjoy because no matter what job you take, you will always feel you work harder than what you are being paid.