Three siblings, one dad, one Farmer School major: Meet the Wielands
How an accountancy professor and his three children are navigating business degrees and campus life together at Miami University’s Farmer School of Business
Three siblings, one dad, one Farmer School major: Meet the Wielands
How an accountancy professor and his three children are navigating business degrees and campus life together at Miami University’s Farmer School of Business
While Emerson, Corinne, and Ella are among the newer students at the Farmer School of Business this fall, they set foot in the halls of FSB long before this semester began.
“As kids, we went to FSB from time to time, and there were other faculty and their children here, and we'd play hide and seek, and I loved it,” Emerson said.
“In elementary school, sometimes I would take a sick day, and my dad would let me come to the campus and sit in a class and just walk around, see what the Farmer School was like,” Corinne said. “I felt like the coolest fifth grader in the world.”
The trio’s father is Matt Wieland, an associate professor of accountancy who has taught at the Farmer School since 2015. And all three of his children are also accountancy majors. Twins Ella and Corinne started at Miami this fall, while Emerson is in his sophomore year.
But despite growing up with an accounting dad, attending Miami and majoring in accountancy wasn’t a given for the Wieland siblings.
“Out of high school, I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I didn't know whether I wanted to even go to college because the Army seemed appealing,” Emerson said. “I would say my dad is the reason why I'm in accounting right now. He explained to me what accounting was, how you’re able to use an accounting degree to do many different things. He motivated me to come to Miami.”
“I know that I want to study abroad, and Miami has great opportunities for that. I decided to major in accounting because I know that you can essentially do anything with an accounting degree,” Corinne said. “I didn't seriously consider any other school; I've kind of always known Miami was going to be my college. “
When he was in college, the Wielands’ father wasn’t even going into accounting until a conversation with one of his professors changed his path.
“I originally came to school as a pre-med biology major, and my hope was to go to medical school. But I didn't really like the labs, and biology wasn't that interesting to me, so I switched over to the business school,” Matt said. “I was taking my first accounting class, and about halfway through the semester, the professor pulled me to the side and said, ‘Hey, you're doing really good in this class, but I see you're not an accounting major. I think you really should switch because if you get a degree in accounting, you could do anything that a finance major can do.”
“He constantly pushed all three of us to be excellent in our studies, reminding us that if we pay attention in class, do the work, put in the time, we’re going to get a good grade,” Ella said.
Having four Wielands in the same school has some advantages.
“I enjoy hanging out with my sister on campus; it's always fun to grab lunch with her and her friends. It's also been pretty funny seeing how people react to us being identical twins,” Corinne said. “With my dad being a professor, if I ever have questions about the FYIC or my classes, I can ask him about them. I also enjoy using his office to store anything I don't want to carry.”
“With the other students with parents as faculty here, there's a network of students that that have similar connections to Miami, so being able to talk to them get insider tips, it's pretty cool,” Emerson said.
“I always have someone to talk to or meet up with. So, if I ever need help on one of my assignments, Emerson has probably already taken the class, and my dad is an accounting professor,” Ella said.
As for post-college plans, the siblings have some different thoughts.
“I’ve been talking to recruiters, talking to people in the industry, and that’s kind of persuaded me to go down more of a public accounting route,” Emerson said.
“The first path is of course accounting. I'm not in an accounting class yet, but I'm sure I'm going to love it,” Corinne said. “But then the other option is going on to law school and then becoming a prosecutor, then eventually a federal judge.”
“Right now, I'm looking at either an auditing job or a tax job, probably tax auditing,” Ella said. “My professor, Michele Frank, said that tax work was like a giant puzzle to her, and that sounds really fun to me.”