Caroline Bryant
Features Editor
When one thinks of Professor Celina Jozsi, her passion for accounting is the first thing that comes to mind. Jozsi eats, sleeps, and breathes accounting.
So it would be a shock to hear that she never dreamed of becoming an accountant– or a professor, either. It all started because of a bet.
Jozsi began her undergraduate career at the University of South Florida as a math and French major. One day, her accounting-major friend would bet her $50 that she wouldn’t pass an accounting class.
“Back then, $50 was a lot,” Jozsi said.
So they shook hands, enrolled in accounting and won the bet. She enjoyed that accounting class she took so much that she decided to advance.
During her master’s, USF would ask her– in two days– to start teaching an accounting course at the college. A professor injured from falling off a hayride, and they needed a replacement fast. With no hesitation, she said, “ok.”
She continued to teach accounting at USF for 35 years until the school made her retire. During her time there, she’d won 20 teaching awards, including the FICPA Outstanding Accounting Educator of the Year in 2009 and the Hispanic Woman of the Year in Education from the Tampa Bay Hispanic Heritage Foundation.
But she didn’t want to stop. She joined the Florida Southern College Business School in 2014. Since then, Jozsi has remodeled the accounting department.
Before her, there was no accounting career fair. She’d talk to the Career Services Center about organizing one in the fall and spring. The first one in 2017 hosted eight employers. Now– “subtracting COVID years”– the number of employers has doubled, broadening student opportunities.
She also reprogrammed the major by front-loading accounting classes during their lowerclassmen years, allowing them to balance general education requirements, business courses and accounting courses. By the time students in the major become sophomores in upper-level accounting classes, they’re already set with an internship before the class ends.
Long time in the professional world, Jozsi is a great connection for students when finding a post-graduate job.
“Because I’ve taught so long, I know a lot of people in the professional world,” Jozsi said. “A lot of people call me, a lot of employers call me and I am able to match up our students well to the employers because I know them well, I’ve taught them, multiple classes, had many conversations with them, etc. So that ability to provide for the students a meaningful career once they leave is something that I’m passionate about.”
Employers are so satisfied with FSC accounting students that Jozsi said they need to triple accounting enrollment. She does what she considers “missionary work,” plotting to convert gifted students in other majors to switch or add an accounting major or minor.
“I see students who plan out every day of their lives,” she said. “Obviously, I believe that you need to plan, but you have to accept what life brings you, and you can not plan completely. I didn’t plan to go into accounting. I didn’t plan to go into teaching. And yet, people will tell me that I’m a natural teacher.”
The new Publix accounting course does just this. After being approached by Publix, she and a few other professors wrote an introduction to accounting class for Publix staff. These are mainly adult staff, like clerks and managers. She hopes employees learn so much from the class that they’re intrigued to enroll in more accounting classes.
Her dedication and persistence to improve stem from her background. Jozsi was born in Cuba. As a child, her parents sent her and her sister to the United States through Operation Peter Pan to escape the communist regime. When they arrived they were placed in orphanages and housing projects until they reunited with their parents.
If her parents could face the uncertainty of never seeing their children again, she can do anything.
“When I think of what my parents experienced, it made me much more resilient and appreciative of the freedom in the United States that probably more than anyone else,” she said. “You can’t separate yourself from your background. Because of my background, I always felt like I had to embrace every challenge to the utmost so when I thought of accounting I went full steam ahead. And when I thought of teaching I went full-steam ahead.”
And the FSC community has supported her each step of the way. Jozsi explains that the smaller class sizes make it easier to build long-lasting relationships with students, compared to USF.
One of her students Alex Blakenship, who gave her her Spirit of the Cornerstone award, is an example of an impactful relationship she has created.
“Professor Celina Jozsi embodies all of these tenets throughout everything she does,” Blankenship said to Jozsi when handing her her award. “She spends day and night working to build up every one of her students and alumni alike and truly strives to make Florida Southern a better place than how she found it. I’m honored to present one of the 2023 Spirit of the Cornerstone recipients Professor Celina Jozsi.”
Students and professors opened their arms to Jozsi when her husband of 45 years passed away last month. Many bought her flowers, wrote her cards, organized meal trains and attended a funeral service FSC held in his honor.
“Their love, their support is overwhelming and that’s why I think I’m in the right place,” Jozsi said.
While Jozsi was a decorated accountant and professor at USF, Jozsi knows her passion for the field grew stronger thanks to the tight-knit community at FSC.
