O’Meara juggles more than just a soccer ball

Balancing time in graduate school can be difficult, but Ericka O'Meara has mastered the art of time management while putting in the intense hours of graduate school, fulfilling internship hours, taking time to tutor students in the accounting department and playing for the University of Northern Iowa women's soccer team.  

"I came to UNI because they were recruiting me for soccer and because of their well-known accounting program," said O'Meara. "I knew it would be a lot of work, but I was willing to put in the time and effort needed to play a sport I loved while gaining an education."  

O'Meara decided during her junior year that she wanted to get her master's degree in accounting, and since her GPA was high enough, she didn't have to take the Graduate Management Admission Test and was accepted to start her master's program during her senior year at UNI.

"I was really glad I was able to transition right into my master's program my senior year. It was an easy adjustment because the professors made me feel important and like they really cared about me and my success," said O'Meara.

When O'Meara has time for fun with her busy schedule, she usually spends her weekends driving to see her fiancé and working on wedding details.

"I'm a person who needs to plan, and while it's been fun to plan the wedding, I'll be glad when it's done," she said. "When I do stay here in Cedar Falls, I hang out with the girls on the soccer team."

O'Meara has been on the UNI women's soccer team for five years, and this year will be the first year she will be on the sidelines, which she said is "hard to get used to."

"Soccer was my college career – I played it almost every day, if not every day, so it's an adjustment to not have to wake up and go to practice," said O'Meara. "This is the first semester of not playing, and I miss the team aspect of soccer and, of course, the girls. Those girls and soccer made my college experience."

O'Meara plans on moving to the Minneapolis area in May when she graduates, to work at KPMG and get married.