Student Spotlight: Tia Streiffert

August 28, 2023

Tia Streiffert grew up in Wasilla, Alaska and joined the Air Force where she worked as a news/radio broadcaster. After completing her enlistment, Streiffert attended Horry-Georgetown Technical College where she immediately fell in love with accounting. She subsequently transferred to Clemson as an accounting major, in part, because her future spouse was a Clemson alumnus, who showed her around campus and took her on a walk through Presidential Park. After completing her undergraduate degree, she worked for BDO in Anchorage and then applied and was accepted in Clemson’s Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAcc) program.

Streiffert returned to the Upstate and chose the audit track of the MPAcc program because of the positive experience she had in her undergraduate auditing class. She enjoyed the class and found it “fascinating to pull away from the black and white idea of what accounting was and look more at the ‘grey’ area of accounting – the parts that require judgement and professional skepticism.” While enrolled in the MPAcc program, she passed several sections of the CPA exam, worked as an intern at BDO, and got married. Tia highly recommends the MPAcc program because “the professors care a lot about student success, the building is in a great location and the program is really great at preparing you for a career in public accounting. The built in CPA study is an amazing resource as well.” 

Streiffert has made the most of her time at Clemson. Her undergraduate and graduate experiences have equipped her with the necessary technical and soft skills needed to be an effective auditor. She has also been active in extra-curricular activities while at Clemson. As an undergraduate, she was the treasurer and president of the Clemson Student Veteran’s Association, the treasurer for the Salute Veteran’s Honor Society, and member/historian for Gamma Sigma Sigma, a service sorority on campus. While Streiffert is appreciative of her time at Clemson, she is looking forward to further developing as an audit professional at BDO in Anchorage.