In the spring of 2008, SDSU accounting student, Vita Martin, was informed that she had been selected by the Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) to serve in their prestigious postgraduate technical assistant (PTA) program. Martin, the outstanding Master of Science in Accountancy student for 2008, was one of only five graduate students selected for the program out of a pool of hundreds of student
nominations from throughout the U.S.

Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, FASB is recognized as the ultimate authority on establishing and maintaining financial accounting and reporting standards for private-sector American businesses and organizations.

Since January 2009, Martin has been in Norwalk working at the FASB on various accounting projects, including leases, reporting discontinued operations, projects related to FAS 157, fair value measurements, and oil and gas disclosures. As an FASB PTA, Martin participates in board meetings and prepares meeting materials, such as memos, minutes and summaries. She also researches inquiries received from the public on various technical accounting issues, analyzes comment letters received from constituents on documents issued by the board for public comment, and participates in modeling XBRL elements for newly issued accounting standards updates. “Being an FASB PTA has been an amazing experience. My job provides endless opportunities for learning. I am exposed to challenging accounting issues every day and work with very talented people who are experts in technical accounting,” Martin said of her experience.

Martin has also enjoyed living on the East Coast: “There is so much to explore here, you could see something different every weekend, whether it’s a museum, a visit to the theater or a historic site, or a hike among the beautiful New England scenery.”

Martin’s tenure at FASB ends at the end of the year, at which time she will move to Colorado to take an auditing position with KPMG’s Denver office.