Many graduate students enter their programs immediately after completing an undergraduate degree. For Randi Chadwell, the journey to earning a Master of Accountancy (MAcc) has included more than 20 years of work experience in Texas, Wyoming and North Dakota before finding her professional and academic home at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Now, she says, “I’m where I’m supposed to be.”

After completing her bachelor’s degree in accounting at the University of Texas San Antonio in 2002, Chadwell held assorted accounting positions at a wide variety of businesses, including a ski resort, a trona mine and an automotive manufacturing plant. About 10 years ago, while going through a divorce, she and her nine-year-old daughter, Zoe, moved to East Tennessee, where she met her now-husband, also the single parent of a daughter. The couple married in 2017.

Chadwell spent several years working as a controller for an East Tennessee concrete polishing company and helping the owner pursue other ventures. When she eventually began thinking about other job opportunities, she cast her eye toward UT. “I wanted more stability, and I thought, ‘There’s always going to be a university,’” she says.

A Desire to Challenge Herself

Chadwell’s first job in the UT system was an accounting specialist position in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences on the Institute of Agriculture campus. In 2021, an opportunity arose that better aligned with her skills and experience level, and she transitioned to her current role as Accountant II in the Office of Budget and Finance (OBF) on the UT campus.

Meanwhile, she’d begun to consider taking advantage of UT’s educational assistance benefit to earn a MAcc degree from the Haslam College of Business. “I’m the type of person who’s always wanting to learn something new,” she says. “I was thinking about how I could better myself, and I wanted to have more than just a bachelor’s degree.”

She contacted MAcc director Robert Fuller to discuss how she might fit the program around her full-time work schedule. The Haslam MAcc normally takes 10 months, but Chadwell made arrangements with Fuller to take half the typical course load each semester and complete the degree in two years. She started the program in fall 2022 — the same semester Zoe started UT as a food science and nutrition major.

Facing Difficulties with Determination

Chadwell dealt with numerous challenges during her time in the MAcc program. In addition to juggling her studies and a full-time job, she faced a serious illness, underwent major surgery and cared for two elderly relatives. “It’s been very hard,” she admits. “Sometimes I’ve thought maybe this wasn’t the right time to be in [graduate school], but I just pushed on through. I wanted to show my daughter that you can follow your dreams at any age, at any time.”

Support from her husband and others played an important role in helping her achieve that dream. She describes her boss, Melissa Johnson, and OBF co-workers as “very supportive and patient” and expresses gratitude for Haslam faculty, particularly Lauren Cunningham, Anita Hollander and Terry L. Neal. “Vols help Vols,” she says. “They’ve all been amazing.”

That help was crucial because, she says, “I don’t learn the same way I did 20 years ago, especially after getting really sick.” Around the time she started the MAcc program, she underwent brain surgery, after which she experienced significant vision loss and memory impairment. “The professors caught onto that and helped me realize I don’t have the ability anymore to just memorize the material and regurgitate it. I really have to know it.” 

Cunningham, the Keith Stanga Professor of Accounting at Haslam, says, “Randi is a great example of someone who didn’t have the opportunity to attend graduate school earlier in her career but made it a goal to come back and get her degree later. She’s taken that professional experience and enriched our classrooms by sharing how classroom-taught concepts have applied to her in practice. In addition to taking on the rigor of our MAcc program, she has worked full-time, been a primary caretaker to family members and juggled other unforeseen events. Her perseverance and resilience are truly a source of inspiration.”

‘I Want to Wear Orange’

Chadwell will walk in UT’s May 2024 hooding ceremony before officially completing her MAcc degree in the summer. After that, she is considering taking the Certified Management Accountant or Certified Internal Auditor exam. “I have that natural sleuth about me,” she says with a smile. “I’m not actively looking to go anywhere — I love the OBF — but I could see myself eventually doing internal audit work.”

Meanwhile, Zoe, following her passion for cooking, transferred to the UT Culinary Institute and graduated in March 2024. Chadwell says, “I’m so proud that I’ve been able to take my UT journey with my daughter. [Our story shows] that UT has something for everyone, whether we want to go to graduate school or master a trade like the culinary arts.”

Her UT pride runs deep. She notes that, as a working professional, it might have been easier to use her education assistance benefit for an online graduate degree from a different school in the UT system, but, “I don’t want to wear another school’s colors. I want to wear orange. I want UT’s degree on my wall. I have enough pride in where I work that I was willing to invest my energy, money and time to be a part of this program.” 

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CONTACT:

Stacy Estep, writer/publicist, sestep3@utk.edu