While on a recent sabbatical as an accounting professor at Colorado Mesa University, Dr. Suzanne Owens-Ott, CPA, spent time as an intern in a Western Slope CPA firm, brushing up on her audit skills in order to bring some new tricks of the trade back to her students. 

In a training room filled with first-year staffers, Owens-Ott recalls introducing herself to the group as an audit professor who hadn’t performed an audit since the mid-1990s – “before many of them were born,” she laughs. Having worked many years ago as an auditor at Deloitte in Kansas City, “just like them, I was there to learn, and hopefully to take new ideas back to my audit students.”

Her internship included spending time in the field, reviewing workpapers, attending staff audit training, providing observations and feedback, and participating in other training and development initiatives alongside the firm’s training and development staff. 

Calling the faculty internship experience overwhelmingly positive, Owens-Ott notes that “I was somewhat relieved to discover that an audit is still an audit — much like it was in the 1990s. The most significant change is the technology that’s available today. While today’s interconnectivity and automation clearly make audits more efficient, the fundamental objectives, evidence, and procedures remain largely the same.”

Owens-Ott says the experience was a win-win-win — for her students, for the participating firms, and for her as a faculty member. 

“My students will benefit from learning from someone with updated, real-world knowledge that reflects the current audit environment rather than just textbook theory,” she says. “In turn, I hope that the firms will benefit from access to graduates who are entering the profession with stronger skill sets, as well as from feedback and recommendations related to training programs.”

Check out the spring 2026 issue of NewsAccount, now available digitally, for more on Owens-Ott’s experience and its positive impact in bridging the gap between the classroom and the profession.

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