When Kent Klaus (BUS ’82) looks back at his undergraduate years at DePaul University’s Driehaus of College Business, one thing stands out: the mentoring he received along the way.
“I am a strong believer in the power of mentoring and credit it with being a lifelong key to my success,” says Klaus, a p
artner in Global Employer Services at Deloitte Tax LLP.
To expand mentoring for current accounting students, Klaus recently made a generous gift—matched by the Deloitte Foundation—to create the Office of Student Success and Engagement at DePaul’s School of Accountancy and Management Information Systems. This one-stop-shop for skills training and access to professionals in the field aims to give students the comprehensive support they need for career and life success, from resume and interviewing workshops to regular interactions with top Chicago employers.
“The idea is to tie all of those resources together so that students can access the full breadth of services available to them from the school and the university,” says Klaus, who also teaches periodically at the accountancy school. “The biggest thing that I hope we’ll accomplish with this initiative is to identify mentors for students who will be available to them for the length of time that they’re here at the university.”
Ray Whittington, director of DePaul’s accountancy school, says the gifts will help the school produce career-ready graduates.
“Through Kent’s and the Deloitte Foundation’s generosity,” he says, “our graduates will experience professional development and networking opportunities that will give them an advantage when they enter the workforce.”
Klaus, who serves on the college’s advisory board and is past president of Ledger & Quill, the DePaul accountancy school’s giving society, says this is just another way for him to give back to his alma mater and its students.
“If it weren’t for DePaul, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I want to pay that forward to a new generation of students,” he says.