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| Many
Happy (Tax) Returns
by Lainey S. Cronk
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 If
you had been walking through the Napa Valley Adventist Retirement
Estates last week, you might have encountered a strange mix of
college students and white-haired folk all in the depths of a very
exciting activity: filling out tax returns.
A number of years ago, business administration professor Henry
Kopitzke started a service learning opportunity with his “Taxation
for Individuals” students. They trooped down to the Retirement
Estates in Yountville and helped the residents with their tax returns.
The next year, Kopitzke was contacted by Veterans Services, and
he added the Yountville Veterans Home to his project.
Kopitzke’s students are given the option of doing either
an all-day tax return lab for the retirees or writing a short paper.
Every single student has chosen the lab. “I’ve had
some students who were real cynics about it beforehand,” says
Kopitzke. “But when they’re done, they’re completely
changed!” It’s a very personal project, he explains,
because the students are meeting these individuals and then sitting
down with them and going through the filing process. In the end,
they hand their “client” a completed return. Koptizke
says, “I tell my students, ‘these people are going
to sign the return you do for them and send it to the government—this
is it!’”
PUC business major Justin Smith was enthusiastic about the project. “Any
time you can do hands-on experience for a class, you learn so much
more than when you’re just doing bookwork,” he says. “This
was one of the best experiences.”
In addition to benefiting the students, however, this project also
served the community. Smith describes how appreciative the residents
were, especially at the Retirement Estates, where the PUC students
are the only people who provide tax return assistance. Residents
even expressed their gratitude by baking bread and bringing cake
for the students. Business major Meghan Gainer concludes by saying, “All
the people that I talked to really appreciated that we came down
to do this for them.”
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