Student finds the right answer in his choice to study accounting

Only months before graduating with a double major in supply chain management and marketing, Rutgers Business School student Wei Ren had a revelation: he was meant to be a tax accountant.

Ren postponed his 2024 graduation to add a major in accounting and then he joined the Road to CPA Program at Rutgers Business School-New Brunswick to smooth his path into a career in the field.

“I love doing taxes because at the end, the credit always equals the debit,” he said. “There are multiple ways to do it, but at the end, there’s only one answer.”

By December 2025, Ren had three majors under his belt. A month later, he enrolled in the year-long Master of Accountancy in Taxation through Rutgers Business School’s Gateway program.

“It’s refreshing to see someone so excited about the field, because that’s how I felt,” said Laura Del Pizzo, a CPA at the WilkinGuttenplan firm and Ren’s mentor through Road to CPA. 

The program — one of Rutgers Business School’s five industry-focused Road to Success Programs — offers mentoring, test prep workshops, career information sessions, networking opportunities, and individual academic and career advising. Road to CPA has more than 80 pairs of professional mentors and student mentees — twice as many as when it launched in spring 2022, according to Sarah O’Rourke, director of the program.

This year, it added a separate peer mentoring program with about 20 students who offer advice through one-on-one meetings and panel discussions on topics such as interviewing, class schedules, time management and resumes. Students can join at any point in their college career. 

“My goal is that students feel supported throughout their entire college career and pathway to CPA,” O’Rourke said.

That type of support helped Ren land a three-month tax and audit internship at WilkinGuttenplan beginning in June. When he added the accounting major, Ren requested a mentor through Rutgers Business School’s TeamUP program, and he was paired with June Toth, a principal at WilkinGuttenplan.

“I fell in love with their mission and especially the culture in the company,” Ren said.

The Mentorship Connection

Ren requested another mentor from WilkinGuttenplan when he joined Rutgers Business School’s Road to CPA Program. Del Pizzo, a 2019 Rutgers Business School alumna, said she speaks monthly with him on a range of topics, including suggestions on how to approach the four-part exam to become a certified public accountant. They also just chat. 

“I spend a lot of my day talking with clients and collaborating. Having those personal skills is really important and Wei is a great communicator,” Del Pizzo said.

Ren values the connection. “She emphasized at our first meeting that it’s OK not to know everything as an intern or a new associate, but just to be open-minded and show up ready to learn,” Ren said.

Ren first heard about Road to CPA when he took accounting prerequisites in Financial Management and Managerial Accounting with O’Rourke. He didn’t join then because he was pursuing non-accounting majors, but he tucked away the knowledge of the program. 

Foundation in the Family Business

His career epiphany came as he searched for jobs in his first two majors and decided he wanted something different. Still, he worried he would set himself back by extending his undergraduate career but enrolling in the master’s program in taxation and landing the accounting internship have eased that concern.

Working at his family’s restaurant in Roselle while growing up sparked his interest in accounting, he said. His parents emigrated from China and worked in restaurants until they were able to open their own. Ren said he began helping handle the restaurant’s financial management by age 16.

“I was fascinated by tracking cash and the costs of the business. Accurate reporting shows the health of the business,” said Ren, who has worked 25 to 30 hours a week — and sometimes more — throughout his college years.

Ren chose Rutgers Business School for its high national ranking and reputation for alumni success. It also was a short commute from his family’s home in Linden. The 24-year-old has been involved in Rutgers Chinese Student Organization and more recently in Rutgers University Accounting Association.

His advice for other Rutgers Business School students is to pursue internships sooner than later. “It's most important to get hands-on experience as early as possible because most companies are hiring one to two years in advance,” he said. 

While the shift in his career goal caused some stress, Ren has no regrets. “I definitely have evolved. I developed technical skills, became way more mature, and now I have a clear vision of becoming a CPA and a trusted advisor,” he said. “I’m very excited for what's to come.”

-Margaret McHugh