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Ratish Pillai
Goal Statement
University of St. Thomas
Cameron School of Business
Master of Science in Accounting
I first grew to appreciate the accounting profession when I was in middle school. That sounds
cliché, but back then I didn’t know that the profession was even called “accounting” or what it
entailed, or even that it had anything to do with numbers, laws and specific practices. I just
knew one thing was on my mind “This seems pretty cool.”
First and foremost I was attracted to the essence of the field. My father has been a CPA most of
my life, he’s worked for the IRS, big accounting firms, and in the healthcare industry. When I was
very young he started a side business filing people’s annual tax returns. What started as
something to make side income to help our family soon grew beyond what he could have
imagined. When I was in middle school he took a huge risk in leaving his mid-level management
job to open up his own accounting firm. When he first opened up shop is when I noticed what
he was to his clients, more than just a CPA, he was a confidante. I grew up in a close-knit South-
Asian immigrant community in North Texas, where many families had few people to turn to for
advice about their taxes and general accounting and finance needs. I saw that people trusted my
father greatly. Because he himself was an immigrant, and had gone through similar experiences
as most of these people, he knew their needs. Like many South-Asian immigrants he has worked
a minimum wage job, he’s gone back to school for a degree after coming here from India, he’s
worked for big companies and he’s owned a business. People knew they could rely on him for
