She is Crisp and Makes Life Crispy: Accounting under Prof Marivic Ignacio

John Santeo Tamayo, INK

When it’s Ms Marivic Ignacio’s class, you’re in for a powerhouse

Ms  Marivic Ignacio — your Accounting professor? An asset or a liability?

Students around the campus gave no definite or clear consensus. They were either glad or they rued the day that Ms  Marivic came into their lives to teach them Accounting.

Yet, it was almost by chance that she pursued the teaching profession at all. “I have always wanted to share. Life got in the way, but there was that one point when it just presented itself as an opportunity,” says Ms Marivic.

This Accounting professor is known for managing her students efficiently and effectively. So much so, that Kayla Peneyra thinks of Accounting as a military exercise, and Marivic as a commanding presence. “We were actually being enlisted rather than enrolled. It was boot camp.”

Many look up to Ms Marivic’s Accounting grads as brave souls. As a matter of fact, she too is impressed by these brave souls, “That shows me the character and the level of maturity of the students. I like the open-minded, and not those who are scared right away, even before anything happens.”

Are some students trying to avoid enrolling in her class?  “Frankly,” she says, ‘this confirms my traditional way of imposing fear for authority in general, and having to go strictly by the rules.”

But as the list of her students continues to lengthen, Marivic feels challenged by the many who still choose to enroll in her class. “Aside from the fact that they are worth teaching, I learn a lot more from these students than they’ll ever know.”

Is there really something about Accounting under Ignacio that some students work up a kind of anguish? “Accounting can be really difficult in any school. It’s either they don’t take me or they don’t take Accounting at all.”

Kayla nonetheless sees Marivic as a ‘motherly’ Accounting professor.  “When you have a dedicated professor giving her all to her students, a terror class isn’t as daunting to face and conquer.”

The two faces of Ms. Marivic

Whether it be in a class or a seminar, the typical Ms Marivic Ignacio engages her students in a lively discussion.

Microsoft Excel and Weygandt, Kimmel, and Kieso’s Accounting Principles have become the best friends of her students. Some Accounting students feel that the rigors of her classes tend to limit their social lives.

“Why? What is the normal balance of social life? Should it increase or decrease? It’s actually up to them.”

It seemed, however, that the Accounting fever caught onto the spirit of some of her former students. Kamiekah Nakamura, a student of Ms. Marivic for four Accounting classes (all with grades of 1.0), proudly says, “Why? Is there a grade better than uno under Ignacio?” In fact, she misses those panic episodes when her financial statements do not balance in the end, and eventually realizing she was “either wrong or just being paranoid.”

“Ray Estrada? He’s just the husband of Ignacio!”

Last but not the least, Ms Marivic denies rumors that she is making Accounting difficult so she can step out of the shadow of being ‘merely the wife of Ray Estrada.’ On the contrary, Ms Marivic argues, “If Ray learns a thing or two about Accounting, then I’d be happy and allow him instead to use the label ‘just the husband of Ignacio.’”

Sir Ray, if you’re reading, INK is always ready and open for your witty and humorous comments.