For almost 30 years, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program has been led by Prof. Danny Pannese, Associate Professor of Accounting. This program is available for Sacred Heart University accounting majors who can gain course credit while also learning knowledge applicable to the real world.
Students volunteer within a VITA site at the North Branch Public Library that also works with the Burroughs Community Center in Bridgeport, Conn. The program provides eligible, middle to low-income clients with free tax return preparation.
“We created a class that is split into different teams of two or three students. Before the students are assigned any returns, Prof. Anderson and I will do the returns first every weekend. We then assign them to the students who must do a pre-audit with the clients,” said Pannese.
After meeting with the students, they go over what issues the client may have. After laying information into a tax software and an Excel spreadsheet, the students must come to an agreement on an amount for refund before presenting it to Pannese and Anderson, who have to approve of these numbers.
Source: Joshua Archilla, Staff Photographer
Source: Mark F. Conrad, Sacred Heart University
Students taking the course find volunteer efforts to be very rewarding.
“It has been an excellent experience physically getting on the phone with the clients we are assigned to and rewards itself when we get thanks from each client after we finish helping them with their taxes,” said senior and VITA member Ryann Greene. “It feels rewarding to know that I am helping lower and middle-income people within our local community around the greater Bridgeport area.”
“VITA has made me realize how good it feels to do volunteer work,” said senior and VITA member Christian Campo. “Every time someone was due for a refund, they were so grateful and thankful. This just makes you feel good about what you are doing.”
The program allows volunteering students to obtain new skill sets.
“VITA has helped strengthen my communication skills, especially since I was calling and speaking to clients myself,” said Greene. “This is not something I did in my other accounting internships with accounting firms. As someone with social anxiety, the necessity of calling our clients helped push me out of my comfort zone and challenged me in a good way.”
Campo also mentioned the importance of knowing how to file your taxes and how his communication skills were enhanced due to the VITA program.
“I think it is beneficial to know taxes and how they work,” said Campo. “VITA has taught me great communication skills. I consider myself a people person and I really don’t have trouble talking to anyone, I also love helping the community out.”
This program is depicted as more of a job than an actual course.
“In this class, no student can hide because we are dependent on you,” said Pannese. “You also can’t blow a class because we have appointments and it’s just like running an actual firm where we have clientele waiting for a call.”
It has also given students opportunities to make connections.
“VITA has allowed me to make connections with my peers, as we are a small class of only seven people,” said Greene. “We all have a few classes together outside of VITA, but being here in a small group helps us efficiently spend time working together to review each client, and I highly recommend other accounting students to consider taking this class, as it helped me better connect myself to the local community and other accounting majors that I usually do not spend much time with outside of classes.”
