03/02/2026
You never know where Accounting at Iowa Central will take you. For Emmanuel, it took him as the sole student representative of Iowa Central to advocate for community colleges at the Iowa State Capitol today.
Emmanuel was nominated by his instructors and Associate Dean for his inspiring tenacity he demonstrates as a student. Originally coming to Iowa Central for football from Madison, Wisconsin, his plans changed when he found football was no longer his passion and he took an accounting class to major in business.
He quickly found a love for numbers, organization, and the details and decided to major in accounting. However - big barriers existed:
•He needed to commute from Grimes - DAILY
•His classes didn’t align with the program based on previous credit
He needed to not only drive over an hour each way daily, but would be taking both the freshman and sophomore accounting classes in the same year. Others said there was no way he could do it - it would be too much. What did his two accounting instructors say? You got this!
And he does. He exceeds all expectations daily. Not only is he doing great academically, but he is gaining incredible experience preparing complex tax returns at his internship in Johnston and earning the highest internship wage we have seen in the program.
He didn’t let his environment he was raised in, change of plans, rigorous class load, long days and drives, or naysayers stop him. Instead, it fueled a fire that we couldn’t be more proud to witness every day.
Future plans? Transferring to UNI, then CPA bound. After that? The sky is the limit.
