MONROE - Horses and accounting make for an odd combination, but for Sherri Hendrickson's college accounting students, the silver quarter horse trophy is a rather apropos representation of their achievements.
"It's something unique," said Hendrickson, a business education teacher at Monroe High School. "And it relates to our history of cases, and it's awesome that it comes from the year we won first place."
She's referring to the annual Wisconsin High School Forensic Accounting Competition held at Lakeland College near Sheboygan. In the competition, teams from different high schools research the same case of a white collar crime and present their findings, including how it happened and how the crime could have been prevented, to a panel of judges.
Students dress in formal business clothes for the presentation, which is "more of reality" compared to standard schoolwork, Hendrickson said. That dose of reality goes to her college accounting class. The class, which learns about managerial and financial accounting, has participated in the competition since 2013.
"It's more of a legitimate deal, really, for like later on in life," said Isaac Allen, a student in this year's class. "You're not like "I'm looking to get that good grade' or whatever. It's all just the hard work and stuff."
Bob Erb, CFO of Colony Brands and president of the Monroe Board of Education, has been helping the class prepare for the competition each year since they started.
"It kinda started out, sort of, "Well, we don't really know what this is, and we're going to try to do our best and learn some things,' and every year they've gotten better and better," Erb said at a recent board meeting, "and then lo and behold ... they won the championship."
After two years of placing second, Hendrickson's class won first place in 2015 with its presentation on Rita Crundwell, a former comptroller for the city of Dixon, Illinois. Crundwell was convicted in 2013 for embezzling more than $53 million from the city over the course of 22 years.
Taking advantage of their proximity to the scene of the crime - and perhaps giving their research an edge against the competition - Hendrickson and her students traveled to Dixon and met with the city's new comptroller and the whistleblower who exposed Crundwell.
One of the quirks in the Crundwell case was how she used the stolen money: She spent a large portion of it on buying and breeding competitive show horses.
After her conviction, her assets were seized and auctioned off to pay restitution to the city - including hundreds of horse trophies sold in bulk.
Erb and Hendrickson found the trophies' buyer, AQHA Trophies in Minnesota, and bought "the biggest trophy of this lady's that we could get," Erb said. "It's this big world championship quarter horse trophy. It's just beautiful."
He paid for it, and Hendrickson brought it to Monroe Engraving to have it personalized. They surprised her class with the trophy, renamed as the "Forensic Accounting" trophy, in February.
"(It was) just a thrill to really work with those kids, and it was a lot of fun to see them - their eyes kind of light up when they saw that," Erb said.
According to one of her students, Hendrickson said, the trophy is a "big deal" in the world of horse competitions.
The name of each student on the 2015 team is engraved onto a plate on the trophy under "1st Place." They were Gwendolyn Ambrose, Kira Briggs, Amber Jenson, Kevin Lewis and Monica Sefcik.
More name plates cover the cylindrical base of the trophy, one for every Monroe team that's participated in the forensic accounting competition. Several blank plates wait to be engraved with the names and results of future teams.
"And it's a motivating factor, right?" Hendrickson asked several of her current students last week. "You want to have your names on there with a first-place win."
"Oh, definitely," Allen agreed.
While they didn't place in the competition, held Monday, both Hendrickson and Erb were enthusiastic about the benefits of the experience. Monroe competed against 20 other teams, all presenting on the recent Wells Fargo case where employees secretly opened accounts for customers without their knowledge. Erb called this year's presentation "phenomenal."
Academic competitions "can be just as rewarding as athletics," he said. "Win or lose, these kids - they learn so much."
When asked what she plans to do once the trophy runs out of blank plates, Hendrickson joked, "Then I guess I'll retire, I don't know." (More seriously, she said they'll figure it out when it happens.)
Until then, in Erb's words: "It's the most incredible conversation piece ever in terms of "why do you have this horse trophy for a business club?'"
"It's something unique," said Hendrickson, a business education teacher at Monroe High School. "And it relates to our history of cases, and it's awesome that it comes from the year we won first place."
She's referring to the annual Wisconsin High School Forensic Accounting Competition held at Lakeland College near Sheboygan. In the competition, teams from different high schools research the same case of a white collar crime and present their findings, including how it happened and how the crime could have been prevented, to a panel of judges.
Students dress in formal business clothes for the presentation, which is "more of reality" compared to standard schoolwork, Hendrickson said. That dose of reality goes to her college accounting class. The class, which learns about managerial and financial accounting, has participated in the competition since 2013.
"It's more of a legitimate deal, really, for like later on in life," said Isaac Allen, a student in this year's class. "You're not like "I'm looking to get that good grade' or whatever. It's all just the hard work and stuff."
Bob Erb, CFO of Colony Brands and president of the Monroe Board of Education, has been helping the class prepare for the competition each year since they started.
"It kinda started out, sort of, "Well, we don't really know what this is, and we're going to try to do our best and learn some things,' and every year they've gotten better and better," Erb said at a recent board meeting, "and then lo and behold ... they won the championship."
After two years of placing second, Hendrickson's class won first place in 2015 with its presentation on Rita Crundwell, a former comptroller for the city of Dixon, Illinois. Crundwell was convicted in 2013 for embezzling more than $53 million from the city over the course of 22 years.
Taking advantage of their proximity to the scene of the crime - and perhaps giving their research an edge against the competition - Hendrickson and her students traveled to Dixon and met with the city's new comptroller and the whistleblower who exposed Crundwell.
One of the quirks in the Crundwell case was how she used the stolen money: She spent a large portion of it on buying and breeding competitive show horses.
After her conviction, her assets were seized and auctioned off to pay restitution to the city - including hundreds of horse trophies sold in bulk.
Erb and Hendrickson found the trophies' buyer, AQHA Trophies in Minnesota, and bought "the biggest trophy of this lady's that we could get," Erb said. "It's this big world championship quarter horse trophy. It's just beautiful."
He paid for it, and Hendrickson brought it to Monroe Engraving to have it personalized. They surprised her class with the trophy, renamed as the "Forensic Accounting" trophy, in February.
"(It was) just a thrill to really work with those kids, and it was a lot of fun to see them - their eyes kind of light up when they saw that," Erb said.
According to one of her students, Hendrickson said, the trophy is a "big deal" in the world of horse competitions.
The name of each student on the 2015 team is engraved onto a plate on the trophy under "1st Place." They were Gwendolyn Ambrose, Kira Briggs, Amber Jenson, Kevin Lewis and Monica Sefcik.
More name plates cover the cylindrical base of the trophy, one for every Monroe team that's participated in the forensic accounting competition. Several blank plates wait to be engraved with the names and results of future teams.
"And it's a motivating factor, right?" Hendrickson asked several of her current students last week. "You want to have your names on there with a first-place win."
"Oh, definitely," Allen agreed.
While they didn't place in the competition, held Monday, both Hendrickson and Erb were enthusiastic about the benefits of the experience. Monroe competed against 20 other teams, all presenting on the recent Wells Fargo case where employees secretly opened accounts for customers without their knowledge. Erb called this year's presentation "phenomenal."
Academic competitions "can be just as rewarding as athletics," he said. "Win or lose, these kids - they learn so much."
When asked what she plans to do once the trophy runs out of blank plates, Hendrickson joked, "Then I guess I'll retire, I don't know." (More seriously, she said they'll figure it out when it happens.)
Until then, in Erb's words: "It's the most incredible conversation piece ever in terms of "why do you have this horse trophy for a business club?'"