One of the foundational ones from her perspective was her time at Cal State San Marcos, where as a new mother, she earned an accounting degree and developed the skills that allowed her to find a good job soon after graduation and advance quickly in her career. 

Now, Norviel is emulating the many people who showed her kindness and compassion on her journey, and is giving back to others. The 2008 alumna has made her first gift to CSUSM a big one – a $50,000 endowed scholarship that will support accounting majors during their time in the program.  

“Whenever I make a donation to an organization that I support, it gives me the most rewarding feeling,” said Norviel, who’s a partner and certified public accountant at Moss Adams, which is based in Seattle but has offices throughout the country, including in San Diego.  

“Without the education I received at CSUSM, I wouldn’t have been able to meet with and work for a firm like Moss Adams. I wanted that kind of experience to be shared by more people.” 

Norviel’s generosity is proving to be doubly beneficial, too. Moss Adams, the company she has worked for since the year she graduated and a longstanding partner of CSUSM, chose to match the donation with a $50,000 gift of its own to the accounting department.  

“Moss Adams has a long history of investing in the communities in which we operate, and we’re focused on increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in the accounting profession,” said Gerardo Godinez, Moss Adams partner in charge. “CSUSM’s goals for its accounting program aligned with several of our strategic priorities, and we feel CSUSM is an institution where we can make an impact. We are committed to the success of diverse talent and supporting both the community and students in the field.” 

Alan Styles, chair of the accounting department and one of the professors whom Norviel considers most influential in her success, said he was surprised and overjoyed by Norviel’s gift, which he said is among an increasing number of scholarship donations from alumni. 

“The gift from Annie will fund scholarships that allow us to attract students to the accounting program,” Styles said. “Accounting scholarships enable students to reduce their employment obligations and focus more time on their academic studies and becoming more involved in the Accounting Society and its professional networking activities. A vast majority of our students are first-generation college students, and becoming accounting professionals allows them to set an example for many in their family and community.” 

In making her initial gift to CSUSM, Norviel was inspired by Kyle Casement, a director on the university’s Foundation Board, a fellow CSUSM accounting alumnus and a former colleague at Moss Adams for almost a decade. On Giving Day last fall, Casement created an alumni scholarship to increase alumni accounting outreach, and he has been a tireless champion of alumni giving at any level. 

“He really takes the time to advocate for CSUSM, and we definitely need more people like him,” Norviel said. “It's very inspiring how much time he devotes to the school. I started this initiative, and I’m committed to do more in the future.” 

Casement described Norviel’s donation as “incredible.” 

“Annie is someone who I have always looked up to and who inspires me,” he said. “This gift is a great example of her generosity and support for the university and specifically the accounting program. Not only will this gift have a direct and meaningful impact on current and future students, but I think her contribution and her story will also help inspire other alumni to consider how they might also be able to pay it forward.” 

Students who stand to benefit from Norviel’s generosity can certainly be moved by her personal story. She was raised in Beijing in such a state of poverty that she lived with her parents, her older brother and her grandmother in a bedroom less than 200 square feet, without a water supply or heating system. 

“It was essentially mud and bricks put together with a roof,” she said. 

Desiring to leave China for a land of freedom and opportunity, Norviel moved to the United States by herself after high school. It was a leap of faith, to be sure. She didn’t speak much English, and the only person she knew in America was a friend in Salt Lake City who was more of an acquaintance.  

Settling in Utah would have been hard enough, but only a couple of weeks after she did so, the friend informed her that he would be leaving with his wife to accept a job in China. And when the process of applying to U.S. universities proved much more difficult and cumbersome than she anticipated, Norviel realized that she would need to switch into survival mode.  

Drawn by the large Chinese community, she moved to San Francisco and rented a furnished room while working as a waiter to make ends meet and trying to figure out her new surroundings. When an opportunity presented itself to buy a restaurant from the owner who was retiring, she jumped on it, using the money that she had planned to spend on college. Along the way, she haltingly improved her grasp of the language and learned essential business skills that were all new to her. 

“I have met a lot of great people in this great country,” Norviel said. “That’s also part of the reason I enjoy giving back, because there are so many people who were so generous and extremely kind to me at different stages of my life.” 

Norviel eventually moved to the San Diego area and finally was able to achieve her dream of higher education. CSUSM and its accounting program were the perfect fit.  

“She embraced the work ethic and dedication to academics and development as a professional that we promote in our accounting program,” Styles said. “She indicated a strong desire to be a leader in the professional accounting community while a student.” 

Norviel is just that at Moss Adams, having risen from a tax accountant to a senior manager to a partner. Even the language barrier that stymied her during her early years in America turned out to be an asset in one sense – her ability to speak Chinese has allowed her to serve clients with operations in Asia.  

Asked what advice she gives to students, Norviel said: “It’s OK if you don’t know what you want to do when you’re 18. It’s OK to try different things. There may be a detour until you learn what you’re really passionate about, what you’re good at. I didn't know I would be an accounting professional when I was 18. As long as you work hard, study hard, there will be success waiting for you somewhere.” 

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

When she returned two decades later, she was a woman on a mission, an accomplished professional and cancer survivor who knew exactly what she wanted from the experience and knew she had no time to waste.  

The divergence in motivation led to drastically different outcomes. The first time around, Alisha dropped out as a freshman to enter the working world. This time, she will leave Cal State San Marcos later this month as the winner of the dean’s award for outstanding graduate from the College of Business Administration, and she’s not even close to done yet, either. 

This fall, Alisha will begin a one-year master’s program in accounting at UC Irvine, which includes a $15,000 faculty fellow scholarship, and in 2020 she plans to pursue a Ph.D., with a goal of ultimately returning to CSUSM as an accounting professor.  

“My motivation definitely comes from the fact that I know what I’m getting out of college, so I’m very focused and determined,” Alisha said. “I have a mission, and I’m going to achieve it. Also, time is precious to me. I’m not 18 to 20 with my whole life in front of me. I’m doing something very specific, and it’s time to get it done.” 

Alisha’s intense drive, at age 41, to make the most of her second stab at college led her to do things like take a combined 59 units in one year at MiraCosta and Palomar colleges before she transferred to CSUSM in the fall of 2017. It led her to log 19 units of upper-division courses last spring and 18 last fall, those semesters sandwiching a summer in which she took four classes at CSUSM and one at Palomar.  

It led her to seek involvement with the university, specifically the accounting department, far beyond her heavy class load. Alisha quickly was elevated to head tutor after volunteering to help out in the accounting lab, she served as a supplemental instructor and teaching assistant in different accounting classes, and she was the vice president of the Accounting Society, responsible for bringing in many outside firms and hosting its biweekly meetings. 

All of those extracurricular pursuits didn’t cause her classroom performance to suffer in the slightest, as she has recorded a grade-point average over 3.8.  

“Alisha deserves all the accolades and awards,” said Syed Zaidi, the chair of CSUSM’s accounting department. “She is doing more than any student of mine, yet she never complains. As a returning student, she realized that she has lost a good chunk of time. She realized that she has no other choice but to excel.” 

She did have a choice, however, about how to apply her degree. When Alisha first decided that accounting would be her second career, she wanted to start her own bookkeeping business for the work flexibility it would provide. Then she thought she might want to get a job at one of the Big Four accounting firms, lured by the glamour of being employed by a prestigious global company like Deloitte or Ernst & Young.  

It was at CSUSM that her aspiration changed. With the encouragement of mentors like Zaidi, who taught her in a cost accounting class last spring, Alisha began to think long and hard about eschewing the pressure-cooker world of financial accounting in favor of becoming a professor herself. As she volunteered for more and more activities to test her newfound inclination, she discovered that she had a knack for explaining complex material and that she appreciated the variety of tasks that the job would entail, from teaching to research to service.

“She lectured in two of my classes,” Zaidi said. “One of the lectures was impromptu. Her confidence, her enthusiasm and her eagerness to help students made me think that she is a great candidate for a Ph.D. I saw my mirror image in her. I have no doubt that she will be a great professor.”

Alisha appreciates the irony in the fact that, when she first set off for college as a teenager, she was determined to become neither an accountant (her father is a CPA) nor a teacher (her mother taught early childhood development). But the Oceanside native didn’t know what career she did hope to pursue, so she matriculated to UC Santa Barbara with the half-hearted idea of being a doctor.

Only 17 when she enrolled, Alisha quickly realized that she didn’t want to be there, and when she picked up a part-time sales job at Nordstrom to help cover school expenses, she discovered that she was good at it. She withdrew after two quarters, soon married a man she had met at UCSB, and began an almost 20-year odyssey in various sales positions, eventually rising to store manager of Paper Source in Santa Barbara.

Her life took an unexpected turn in 2013. Only two months after she and her husband decided to separate – “We were no longer the right person for each other,” Alisha said – she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She underwent surgery that September to remove her thyroid gland and a few lymph nodes, but afterward her endocrinologist struggled to find the correct dosage of replacement thyroid hormone (the thyroid regulates both metabolism and body temperature).

“I got to the point where I had gained a significant amount of weight and I was freezing cold,” Alisha said. “I was so cold that my fingernails were blue. I was always in jackets. It took two years to get it all straightened out. I felt like I was a pin cushion, like ‘Here’s my vein, do your blood work.'"

Frustrated by the lack of improvement in her condition, Alisha switched her medical care to UCLA and had a second surgery to remove additional cancer in February 2015. She’s now cancer-free, though her thyroid levels are still checked every year.

“I literally have to take two pills a day to stay alive,” she said. “It’s an interesting thing to come to terms with.”

Another thing she came to terms with was that she had more to offer than running a store for the rest of her life. After a particularly rough holiday retail season in 2015, Alisha chose to make a clean break and go back to school, enticed by her parents’ offer to let her live with them in Oceanside and pay for her living expenses if she returned to college.

She hasn’t looked back since. The outstanding CoBA graduate has much left to accomplish, and the clock is ticking.

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

While the representation of women in senior financial roles is still less than 15 percent among Fortune 500 companies, there is progress. Last year, the number of female CFOs doubled. One of those executives joining that C-suite rank is CSUSM alumna Denise Gurulé (’10).

In May 2017, Gurulé was named CFO of Feeding San Diego, the leading hunger-relief organization in San Diego County that provides 25.2 million meals annually to local residents.

Gurulé never imagined herself in the nonprofit arena, having spent nearly 15 years working for Merlin Entertainment’s LEGOLAND California. She worked her way up from junior accountant to assistant controller while earning her BS in Business Administration with an emphasis in accounting at Cal State San Marcos.

From her executive office above Feeding San Diego’s warehouse in Sorrento Valley, Gurulé laughs at the irony, recalling a business course in government and nonprofit accounting and how she scoffed at the thought of ever leaving the for-profit industry.

“I remember thinking, ‘Who would do this?’” she said.

On her nearly two-decade-long academic journey – one that included an extended hiatus as she took guardianship of her 2-year-old second cousin (who she now calls her daughter) – the single mom found that her love for numbers had a greater purpose to serve people.

U-Turns and Speed Bumps 

Gurulé was 41 when she crossed the commencement stage to shake President Karen Haynes’ hand. The road to her bachelors was long and it included speed bumps and some unexpected detours.

The ’86 San Marcos High School graduate first wanted to be a fashion buyer and even studied at Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. Though it was a passion, pursuing fashion as a career never quite felt right. So Gurulé turned to a familiar subject that always clicked for her: mathematics. Thinking she might like to own a business one day, accounting seemed like a natural fit.

She enrolled in accounting courses at Palomar College, taking one course at a time and in 1999, she began working in the accounting department at LEGOLAND California. She transferred to CSUSM in 2000.

That first year, Gurulé became a single mother as she took guardianship of Amanda. Adjusting to the new role of mom while balancing work and school was debilitating. Gurulé took a step back from her studies and put her degree on hold.

Seven years passed, and then one night during a family dinner, her dad spoke up.

“I remember him telling me, ‘Mija, I want you to finish your degree. Move back home, we’ll help with Amanda, and we’ll make this work.’”

Moving home in her mid-thirties didn’t feel like progress, but Gurulé knew she would need the support of her family. She also knew that this time around, she needed a mentor.

Gurulé was matched with then-business professor Dr. Jim Hamerly as part of the University’s Faculty Mentoring Program. Focused on her studies, working part time and armed with a mentor, Gurulé thrived. She was promoted to assistant controller a few months before she earned her bachelors.

When Gurulé was ready for the next challenge, she once again turned to her mentor, Dr. Hamerly, who suggested she consider TGG Accounting to give her more opportunity to grow in her career. A competitive recruiter for CSUSM alumni, TGG is a managerial accounting firm that works with small businesses to help owners make better informed financial decisions for their companies.

Crunching the Numbers for Good 

At TGG Gurulé discovered that her knack for accounting enabled nonprofits to serve more people, operate at greater capacity and flourish financially. Gurulé quickly became the go-to nonprofit accountant for her firm.

It was there that Feeding San Diego came on her radar. She began as a consultant, filling gaps in accounting leadership.

In November 2014, Gurulé officially moved over to Feeding San Diego as the director of finance. Last May, CEO Vince Hall named Gurulé the Chief Financial Officer. 

It’s a Matter of Green 

Feeding San Diego is part of the 200-member network of Feeding America and a member of the California Association of Food Banks – connections that allow the organization to leverage resources at minimal costs. For example, when local farmer harvests are larger than demand or when produce is deemed aesthetically unsellable because it’s misshapen, farmers donate their product and organizations like Feeding San Diego pay a small pack-and-pick fee to cover farm operation costs. The partnership means healthy food options are made available to families in need at the lowest cost to the organization. It’s a partnership made possible by financial strategy and agreements.

That creative thinking fuels Gurulé and has her focused on the next big challenge. San Diego needs 80 million meals to meet the food insecurity needs of the community. Only about half of that need is being met by area food pantries and nonprofits. 

“Accountants are always working in the past,” Gurulé said. “My goal as a CFO is to work with our executive leadership team and look into the future to talk about how we’re going to meet the need. Being a CFO gives me the freedom to dream, and then crunch the numbers and find fiscally responsible solutions to get us there.”

“What we do is so important. Leaving a legacy is what matters. I want to know that I left my world better than it was when I got here, and to accomplish that you need to start with what’s right in front of you.” 

The FSA Program is run by trained, certified accounting students under the supervision of the CSUSM Accounting Department.

Registration is required. Please read the common documents list below to ensure a complete tax return.

Questions about the program can be directed to Maia Farkas, assistant professor of tax accounting, at mfarkas@csusm.edu.

What: Facilitated Self-Assistance (FSA) Tax Program

When: Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30-11:30 a.m., 1:30-4:30 p.m.; Fridays 1:30-4:30 p.m.

Where: CSUSM College of Business Administration, Markstein Hall, Room 435

Registration: To schedule an appointment, please visit http://tinyurl.com/csusmfsa and enter password: csusmfsa15

Information: Email Maia Farkas, assistant professor of tax accounting, at mfarkas@csusm.edu

* Please bring a laptop to the appointment

Common Documents Needed for Tax Prep

• Proof of identification (photo ID)

• Social Security cards for self, spouse and dependents

• An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) assignment letter may be substituted for self, spouse and dependents if person does not have a Social Security number

• Birth dates for self, spouse and dependents on the tax return

• Wage and earning statements (Form W-2, W-2G, 1099-R, 1099-Misc) from all employers

• Interest and dividend statements from banks (Forms 1099)

• All Forms 1095, Health Insurance Statements

• Health Insurance Exemption Certificate, if received

• A copy of last year’s federal and state returns, if available

• Total paid for daycare provider and daycare provider's tax identifying number such as Social Security number or business Employer Identification Number

• Forms 1095-A, B or C, Affordable Health Care Statements

• Copies of income transcripts from IRS and state, if applicable

• W-2s for each job held in 2016 for each person in the household; this form reports name, wages, and other tax information to the IRS

• 1099s showing other income (unemployment, Social Security, school loans, health-care reimbursement, state tax refund, gambling winnings, contract work) that is reported to the IRS

• 1098s showing payments made to school loans or property tax

• Income/interest statements received for any savings account/investments

• Bank account numbers: a voided check or your bank or credit union’s routing number and savings or checking account number for your refund to be deposited automatically into your account through direct deposit.

Michael Flores took a different approach. He talked about art.

One of the classes Flores took when he attended Cal State San Marcos required a trip to an area museum. He visited one in La Jolla that was exhibiting works from Marin’s extensive Chicano art collection.

Years later, it provided the perfect ice-breaker when he met Marin.

“The fact that I talked to him outside of film made him more approachable,” said Flores, who graduated from CSUSM in 2007 with a degree in accounting. “It was nice to talk to him about his art gallery. He has an amazing collection.”

It’s not unusual for Flores to rub shoulders with Hollywood notables. A certified public accountant, he has spent most of his post-graduate career working in accounting and finance for entertainment companies in the Los Angeles area.

Flores got his introduction to the entertainment industry through PricewaterhouseCoopers after graduating from CSUSM. His resume also includes stints with Prana Studios, which creates animation and visual effects, and Participant Media, where he worked on films such as “The Help” and “Lincoln.”

Today, he is an accounting manager for WGN America, a TV channel owned by Tribune Media.

“I never in a thousand years would’ve thought I’d be doing what I’m doing,” Flores said.

That unexpected path began at CSUSM.

Flores’ connection to CSUSM goes back to the days of the Prohoroff Poultry Farm, the chicken ranch that operated for decades where the University now stands.

Tina Flores, Michael’s mother, lived on the farm for about nine years in the 1960s before moving to Escondido where she still lives today.

“Mr. Prohoroff was a very kind man to all of the people who lived on the farm,” said Tina Flores, who worked for multiple banks as well as in accounting before retiring. “San Marcos was just the chicken ranch. Everybody went to Escondido to get groceries.”

Tina Flores said Grand Avenue in Escondido was a gathering place for people in surrounding communities such as San Marcos, Ramona and Valley Center. They would visit downtown Escondido to shop at stores like J.C. Penney and Sears and pick up groceries at Rube Nelson’s market.

“Grand Avenue was where everybody knew everybody,” she said.

Michael Flores is too young to have memories of the farm. He grew up in Escondido and was an accomplished student and baseball player at San Pasqual High School. He considered attending San Diego State and trying to continue his baseball career under the tutelage of the late Tony Gwynn, but he also wanted to pursue an accounting degree. With SDSU’s business program impacted and CSUSM offering an impressive student-to-faculty ratio, Flores chose to stay closer to home.

“Cal State San Marcos offered the type of accounting program I was looking for,” he said. “I literally followed the road map that they had at the Career Center and followed it through the accounting suggestions. And I graduated on time in four years.”

Flores did have one more opportunity to give college baseball a try as CSUSM’s fledgling program played its first season during his senior year. But by then he was on a firm career trajectory -- he had a position waiting for him at PricewaterhouseCoopers and didn’t want anything to distract him.

“All I had to do was graduate and stay focused on school,” Flores said. “I didn’t want to get sidetracked by trying to fit baseball into my schedule. And it worked out.”

Flores credits CSUSM’s Accounting Society for having a tremendous impact on his career. He said networking opportunities were invaluable and he also was able to learn about everything from workplace professionalism to dinner etiquette.

“The networking opportunities they provided created a whole path for me,” he said.

Flores, who lives in Santa Monica, said he wouldn’t mind someday moving back to North County to be closer to family and friends. But he also loves working in the entertainment industry, which means staying in the Los Angeles area for now. His work includes dealing with budgets and funding, usually for at least four to five projects at a time. The number of concurrent projects can easily eclipse double digits during busy times.

“There’s constant accounting that needs to be done,” he said.

Flores would eventually like to become the chief financial officer of a studio or a vice president of production finance, and he also wouldn’t mind someday returning to CSUSM as an accounting professor.

“CSUSM offers lots of professional accounting opportunity if you get good grades, go to Accounting Society events and persevere,” he said. “You never know where it may lead you.”