Auditing Class bestows grant to Christ Lutheran School in Columbus

Professor Ryan Burger’s auditing class has a history of creating and giving grants to Lutheran institutions. Burger graduated from Concordia in 2004 with a bachelor of arts in business administration and accountancy and is on the Board of Regents for the university. 

On December 8th, this year’s class presented a $6,315 grant to Christ Lutheran School in Columbus. Christ Lutheran head teacher Kathy Petersen plans to use the grant funds to defray costs of installing a new air conditioning system in the school’s gym. The school’s gym and activities area has never had air conditioning. The school was started in 1871.  

Burger’s auditing class is offered every other fall semester. In 2018, the class formed two committees, one that developed grant criteria and reviewed applications for the grant, and another that focuses on fundraising and marketing. 

“It’s been a really informative class,” said junior Chloe Brown. “As someone who did some auditing this past summer but didn’t have the formal training first, the class was very helpful. Both my job experience and the class went together very well.”  

Each grant cycle, students have complete responsibility over every stage of the process, including drafting the grant, getting in touch with donors, and choosing the grant beneficiary. 

Brown was this year’s marketing and fundraising committee chair. The committee was in charge of coming up with possible fundraising ideas, events and ways to raise money. Brown oversaw the entire process and was responsible for keeping people accountable to make sure that money was being raised for the grant.  

Marc Freiberg II, a senior, was the chair of the second committee in charge of selecting and ranking applicants. This committee reviewed applications from the organizations and institutions that applied. The committee then graded the applicants in different categories and areas. 

“We decided on what areas we were going to rank them on and read through the applications,” said Freiberg II. “It was fun to see the committee member’s different thoughts and how they interpreted all of the different applications that we read through.” 

Freiberg II said his work in the business office on campus and the class helped him with his work. 

“We’ve had two audits during my time working in the business office,” he said. “It makes it so much easier when they ask for something, and you know exactly what and where it is that they might be looking for. It has all related exactly to what we’ve learned in the class.” 

Although difficult work, the students reflected on the semester and the experience they will take with them.  

“Professor Burger did a really good job preparing us for the realistic parts of being an accountant and for the CPA (Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination),” said Brown. “This class was very helpful and interesting. It will benefit myself and the rest of the class to lay down the groundwork to be able to apply this to the work we do in the future.” 

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