UB accounting grads receive international audit award

By Matthew Biddle

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Two recent University at Buffalo School of Management accounting graduates have been honored by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) with the Esther R. Sawyer Research Award — the first time two students from the same university received the award in the same year.

Kyle Januszkiewicz, BS ’16, MS ’17, and Wanyin Yan, BS ’16, MS ’17, received first and third place, respectively, for exceptional writing in the IIA’s research manuscript competition, open to students worldwide in an IIA-endorsed comprehensive internal auditing program.

Januszkiewicz, who joined Lumsden McCormick in July as a staff accountant, was recognized for his essay, “The Roles and Future of Internal Audit in Governance, Risk and Compliance.” He won $5,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to the IIA International Conference in Sydney, Australia, to accept his award.

“This was the opportunity of a lifetime to travel to Australia, meet industry professionals from around the world and share the quality of education I received at the School of Management,” says Januszkiewicz, a Cheektowaga native. “To me, this honor reflects the hard work I put into the manuscript, as well as the countless hours my professors dedicated to providing a top-tier accounting education.”

Yan, of Guangzhou, China, collected a $500 prize. In addition, the school’s Accounting and Law Department will receive $3,000 from the IIA’s Internal Audit Foundation to support the Master of Science in Accounting program.

The accounting program’s internal audit and risk management track is one of only 31 programs worldwide — and one of two in New York State — endorsed by the Institute of Internal Auditors.

“The master’s program really pushed my development with real-life experiences: doing mock audits, consulting with local businesses, gaining insights from industry professionals and learning about the gray areas of auditing and accounting,” Januszkiewicz says. “More than that, I also learned valuable life lessons, like how to learn from my mistakes and to ask as many questions as I can. That will be important as I begin my career in public accounting.”