David Mona

David Mona is an Assistant Professor of accounting who teaches Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Financial Management, and has developed an accounting course for Champlain’s MBA program. He has developed and coordinates the Accounting and Math Lab which provides free tutoring services for accounting and math classes. His alter-ego can be found late at night at the local hockey rinks skating with students as the founder and coordinator of Champlain’s recreational hockey program.

Prior to coming to Champlain he worked in industry as a managerial accountant. He has taken his teaching outside the college many times as a guest lecturer at local high schools, presenting at conferences, and teaching for Champlain overseas in Tel Aviv.

David has been teaching at Champlain since 1985. This experience has given him a unique perspective on the evolution of the college during that time frame.

In his own words:

The pace and quality of change has been amazing. I am so proud of what we have accomplished and our ability to stay on the cutting edge. Yet with all these changes Champlain has never waived from its basic values of a close-knit Champlain community and personal attention to students. At how many other colleges and universities do faculty members eat in the student cafeteria with the president on one side and a member of physical plant on the other side, all on a first name basis?
For me it is the personal attention we give to our students and the ability to make a positive impact on their lives that has kept me coming back for 25 years. Small class sizes, advising, and other outside the classroom activities have allowed me to make a difference for many students. There is no better feeling than to have a former student come back and thank you for some small thing you did that helped them become a success

My 25 years at Champlain has given me a wealth of contacts in the community in terms of placing our students in jobs and internships. Former students are coming back and interviewing current students for positions in their firms!

In the classroom I want my students to gain an appreciation for accounting, an ability to think, make decisions and be resourceful no matter what challenges are in front of them. I also want them to think they got their money’s worth in terms of the education they received and the way class was conducted. A student once came up to me at the end of the semester and said that he owned a few shares of stock and each year the company sent him a copy of their annual report. “It always has some really nice pictures in it” he said “but this year I was able to sit down and read the financial statements and actually understand what I was reading!”

Outside of Champlain David Mona can be found at local music venues listening to his favorite rock’n’roll or blues bands, searching for his lost golf ball, playing hockey or contemplating one his of his biggest challenges to date - how to put his 30lb. cat on a diet?

TAGS: Faculty/Staff, Business Division, Accounting, Business, International Business, Legal Studies, Marketing