Costa Mesa, Calif., June 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Career exploration nonprofit Roadtrip Nation is excited to premiere the new one-hour documentary special “Roadtrip Nation: Making it Balance,” which follows three young adults exploring career paths reliant on problem-solving and analysis. Supported by the Center for Audit Quality and presented by KQED, “Making it Balance” began airing nationally on public television stations starting on June 5, 2020, and is available to watch online at rtn.is/making-it-balance.
Made possible by the Center for Audit Quality’s “Discover Audit” initiative, “Making it Balance” explores how people across the nation have charted out unique and surprising pathways in the world of accounting and auditing.
The film follows Sobia, Leilani, and Da’Rell, all of them students or recent graduates, hoping to find their place in the world of accounting and auditing. As they travel from Austin to Boston in Roadtrip Nation’s green RV, they interview people who’ve taken their analytical abilities to companies like the Big Four accounting firms, the WNBA, Powerful Accounting, LiveNation, and more.
For Leilani, who left her family in Guam and moved across the world alone for college, pursuing business, auditing, and accounting offers a sense of certainty she’s been missing in her life. She hopes the skills she gains in these fields will give her the ability to open her own company someday so she can provide for her family. Twenty-one-year-old Da’Rell is a father who wants to give his daughter the best life possible. Still, he also hopes to have an impact beyond his immediate family and educate black-owned businesses on financial topics. Sobia is about to start a position at an accounting firm, and while her family worries that corporate culture is too unwelcoming for women who are minorities to succeed in, she’s ready to meet mentors who can show her it’s possible.
“For years, Roadtrip Nation has used storytelling to help all types of learners shed the noise and find their roads in life,” said Mike Marriner, president of Roadtrip Nation. “Even with a focus on more analytical careers right now, it’s difficult to find your place in a broad field like accounting and auditing. We wanted the stories of these three roadtrippers to inspire people to explore the many pathways that connect to accounting and auditing—through business, finance, entertainment, law, sports, and more—and find a path best suited to their own unique interests and goals.”
From Big Four accounting firms to basketball, the people displayed here have managed to find meaningful, unique careers in the accounting and auditing space. The roadtrippers meet up with Cathy Engelbert, the former CEO of Deloitte and the first woman to lead a Big Four firm in the U.S., who was appointed commissioner of the WNBA; Cynthia Boon, who combines her love for live events and problem-solving as the internal audit manager at LiveNation; and Bryan Ford, a former CPA who harnessed the business savvy he learned as an auditor to start his own business doing what he loves: baking. As the roadtrippers learn about the breadth of career options available to them, they are empowered to seize the opportunities unfolding all around them and pursue their paths with clearer purpose.
“Many people don’t realize the critical role that auditors play in enhancing the reliability of information people depend on to make some of the most important financial decisions in their lives, and just how much the profession is evolving with advancements and adoption of new technologies,” said Center for Audit Quality Executive Director Julie Bell Lindsay. “In today’s COVID environment, a career that offers stability, career progression and the opportunity to learn the inner workings of business – across all types of industries – is a very attractive proposition for job seekers. We hope the authentic stories presented in ‘Making it Balance’ will bring awareness about just how bright of a future a career in audit can lead to.”
To learn more about “Making it Balance,” visit rtn.is/making-it-balance.
You can also learn more about the film by following @RoadtripNation, @TheCAQ, and @DiscoverAudit on Twitter.
About Roadtrip Nation
“What should I do with my life?” Since 2001, Roadtrip Nation has made it their mission to help individuals answer this question. Through bestselling books, an acclaimed documentary series, and interactive classroom curricula, Roadtrip Nation empowers people to turn what they like into careers they’ll love—and helps them navigate any obstacles encountered along the way. For more information, visit roadtripnation.com/about.
About The Center for Audit Quality’s “Discover Audit” Initiative
Discover Audit is an initiative of the Center for Audit Quality aimed at introducing the exciting and dynamic world of public company auditing to the next generation. Please visit www.DiscoverAudit.org for additional resources designed to help anyone– from parents to high school students, to accounting majors and graduate students, to experienced professionals, and even educators/counselors – learn more about a career in public company auditing and the many reasons to Discover Audit.
About KQED
KQED serves the people of Northern California with a public-supported alternative to commercial media. An NPR and PBS affiliate based in San Francisco, KQED is home to one of the most listened-to public radio stations in the nation, one of the highest-rated public television services and an award-winning education program helping students and educators thrive in 21st-century classrooms. A trusted news source and leader and innovator in interactive technology, KQED takes people of all ages on journeys of exploration — exposing them to new people, places and ideas. www.kqed.org
About APT
American Public Television (APT) is the leading syndicator of high-quality, top-rated programming to the nation’s public television stations. For more than 10 years, APT has annually distributed one-third or more of the top 100 highest-rated public television titles in the U.S. Founded in 1961, among its 250 new program titles per year, APT programs include prominent documentaries, performance, news and current affairs programs, dramas, how-to programs, children’s series and classic movies. “America’s Test Kitchen From Cook’s Illustrated,” “Cook’s Country,” “AfroPoP,” “Rick Steves’ Europe,” “Chris Kimball’s Milk Street Television,” “Front and Center,” “Doc Martin,” “Nightly Business Report,” “Midsomer Murders,” “A Place to Call Home,” “Lidia’s Kitchen,” “Globe Trekker,” “New Orleans Cooking with Kevin Belton,” “Simply Ming,” and “P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home” are a sampling of APT’s programs, considered some of the most popular on public television APT licenses programs internationally through its APT Worldwide service. Entering its 13th year, Create®TV — featuring the best of public television's lifestyle programming — is distributed by American Public Television. APT also distributes WORLDTM, public television’s premier news, science and documentary channel. To find out more about APT’s programs and services, visit APTonline.org.