Each attended the Feliciano School of Business to earn degrees in Business Administration – Accounting, and now as a couple, they are directly involved in ensuring success for future graduates.<\/p>\n
Sharon enjoys a unique perspective of Montclair State: she is an alumna, faculty member in the Feliciano School of Business, donor and also a current student as she begins her MBA this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the first in my family to attend college\u2026my high school guidance counselor was the one who urged me to apply. I didn\u2019t have a major in mind, but knew Montclair State was a good school,\u201d Sharon says.<\/p>\n
Jim knew he wanted to be an accountant, following in his father\u2019s footsteps and says he always had his eye on tax. Jim ran a small business while in school to help with expenses.<\/p>\n
Both are grateful for the tough curriculum and engaged professors that prepared them to become successful tax professionals. Starting out in corporate private accounting, Jim moved to a top public accounting firm for the bulk of his career, and is now with Big 4 firm KPMG as a partner, specializing in State and Local Tax. While in school, Sharon secured an intern position with Deloitte and stayed there for her first job after college. Her career later included running her own CPA practice while raising her children. After returning to a Big 4 firm, she went on to become vice president of Tax Accounting at ADP. \u201cI was an adjunct professor for Montclair State while working at ADP and then made the huge move from corporate America to teaching, and I love teaching full-time now,\u201d says Sharon.<\/p>\n
Teaching \u201cElements of Business\u201d to sophomores and juniors, Sharon shares her corporate experience with them and regularly invites other alumni to speak so students can benefit from hearing a range of career experiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see such potential in my students,\u201d Sharon says. \u201cWhen I entered college, I didn\u2019t know what I wanted to do \u2013 I went from humble beginnings to a terrific career. I try to inspire and motivate my students so they can have a wonderful career.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to let them know there\u2019s so much opportunity ahead of them,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n
Jim found his way back to his alma mater because he wanted to make sure students were prepared for the workforce. \u201cI have firsthand experience interviewing and hiring job candidates\u2026I wanted to help students so they\u2019re prepared for job interviews and can excel at their jobs to represent themselves and Montclair State well,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Serving on the Feliciano School of Business Advisory Board, Jim also helped the School create the Dean\u2019s Accelerator Program, working with the dean, Advisory Board members, faculty and Career Services to provide insight to bright, motivated students who have an interest in improving their attractiveness as job candidates and their readiness for high-achieving careers. The students are matched with alumni based on their experiences to give students guidance as mentors. The program has grown from a pilot with nine student-mentor pairings to 23 pairings lined up for this fall and will offer interview preparation and special training to help prepare the students to succeed in the business world.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one more way Sharon is involved as well, serving as a mentor.<\/p>\n
Plus, Sharon and Jim are investing in students with their giving. Jim has been engaging fellow alumni at KPMG and former KPMG employees to donate funds for a room naming in the Feliciano School of Business. And they used their gift as a challenge gift for Montclair State\u2019s annual Giving Day in April to motivate other alumni to give.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important for donors and potential employers to realize the strength of Montclair State\u2019s programs and the quality of the students,\u201d says Jim. \u201cIt\u2019s been extremely rewarding to see the students succeed and to witness the progress the University has made.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When it comes to Montclair State University, alumni Jim Bartek and Sharon Gaglione are all in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campaign-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/soar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/soar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/soar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/soar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/soar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/soar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/soar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/soar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/soar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/soar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}