Kyle Rosa - Honors Portfolio
For my third honors experience, I decided to highlight my work as the Treasurer for the UC Vocaholics. The UC Vocaholics is the premiere a cappella group at the University of Cincinnati, and we are known for performing at a variety of events on campus and in the greater Cincinnati area, and we even host events of our own! As a group, we mostly perform pop songs, and every year we create a competition set, which we take to the ICCA, which is the international a cappella competition hosted each year! For the past 2 years, we have made it to the Semifinals and placed 4th, establishing our group as a force to be reckoned with competitively. Each year, we host Acafest, which is our a cappella invitational, which has grown to be recognized in the area as an iconic musical event at the university! Our group has accomplished so many things since I joined, and I am honored to have been able to serve as the Treasurer for 3 school years!
As the treasurer for the group, I was responsible for handling the group’s finances in almost every aspect, including budgeting, purchasing, and managing our group bank account. Additionally, I acted as one of the primary connections between our group and university administration, maintaining consistent communication with them to ensure our group was remaining in good standing and continued to be eligible for campus funding. This role certainly challenged my organizational abilities, as our group is constantly engaged in events and activities, most of which incur some sort of cost for our group. One thing I had to constantly keep in mind was how much money our group had to spend towards certain things, which I utilized an excel spreadsheet to do. By keeping track of all the group’s spending, I was able to plan to effectively utilize our budget each year. I am proud to say that in the three years I spent as treasurer, our group never missed out on an opportunity or did not have something we needed due to a lack of funds!
In addition to managing our group’s money throughout the year, I was also responsible for creating the budget request for our group each year. This was a long document I had to complete and submit to the university, detailing what our group was planning on doing over the school year and what we needed funding for. I had to go into a great amount of detail explaining why we needed each item on our request, and completing the form ended up being a lengthy process each year. It was always worth it, as university funding allowed our group to participate in things we would not have gotten to do otherwise. Some other forms I had to actively fill out and manage were travel request forms for when our group needed to travel to other universities or competitions, or the necessary tax forms for when our group hired someone to take pictures or run our sound for us.
Serving as treasurer allowed me to not only serve the group and help us be more successful, but it also raised my organizational and professional skills in many ways. My understanding of budgeting and spending grew dramatically, and the regular interaction with university administrators bolstered my professional communication skills. I am confident that I will be more successful in my future career thanks to the time I spent in the treasurer role, and I am even more thankful for the amazing friendships I have found during my time in the UC Vocaholics!
