Heeding the advice from her siblings, Alex Paubel has made the most of her time as a student at UMSL. By the time she finishes her Accelerated Master’s program next year, she will have completed five accounting internships. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

On a beautiful day in late August, a ceremony dedicating the newly named Ed G. Smith College of Business at the University of Missouri–St. Louis was held on the lawn in front of Anheuser-Busch Hall, and the choice of the first speaker for the event was absolutely perfect.

Alex Paubel, the president of the Dean’s Student Advisory Board, held a distinction that made her the ideal person to welcome everyone to the event. A senior accounting major, she was just a few months away from earning her bachelor’s in accounting and becoming the ninth member of her immediate family to earn a degree from UMSL – both of her parents, plus her six older siblings.

So on that day, one legacy name at UMSL introduced another legacy name at UMSL.

“It was an incredible honor,” Paubel said. “I was definitely nervous, but I was excited because of the new era we’re going into at the College of Business, with the naming of the college and all of Dean Shu Schiller’s initiatives. And there was a real sense of community, too. After I had given my speech, all these people I wasn’t aware of, such as former faculty members, people from the Missouri Society of CPAs and UMSL donors, were all congratulating me on my speech and showing excitement for the new era at UMSL. It’s amazing that we have this supportive community.”

The Paubels have helped create that community.

As president of the Dean’s Student Advisory Council, Alex Paubel was the opening speaker for the ceremony dedicating the newly named Ed G. Smith College of Business. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

Alex’s dad, Kerry, graduated with an accounting degree in 1979 and her mom, Karen, earned her communications degree in 1992. Alex’s older siblings followed suit: Nole (BSAcc in 2015 and MAcc in 2017), Layne (BA in 2016, MA in 2018 and MBA in 2023), Blaire (BSAcc in 2017 and MAcc in 2018), Ciara (BA in 2024), Bryce (BS and MS in 2024) and Brett (BSAcc and MA in 2024). The family was featured in a 2016 UMSL Daily profile.

The Paubel siblings haven’t just added to the legacy by simply earning their degrees, but they all individually made significant impacts during their time at UMSL. That was a lesson Alex very distinctly remembers learning during her first few experiences on campus.

“Because we were homeschooled, I got to visit UMSL a few times with my siblings, and they took me around campus introducing me to their friends,” she said. “They had a lot of responsibilities, too, so this wasn’t a quick trip where they just needed to go to class. They needed to work, so I would be there for the whole day. I remember going in the tower with my brother because he tutored this one day, and he had an office there. I had brought my lunch, but somehow, he kind of burned my lunch in the microwave.”

That charred lunch wasn’t her only lasting impression of the day, thankfully.

The entire Paubel family showed up for Brett Paubel’s graduation last year. (Photo courtesy of Alex Paubel)

“It was really exciting, and I had such a good time, which is weird because it’s a university and I was only like 12 at the time,” she said. “But I saw all the connections my siblings had, all the fun things you could do on campus, and just all the opportunities and support there. It was such a good impression that I really never thought of going anywhere else. I’ve always just been set up.”

And even though she admits to being shy by nature, Paubel overcame those fears and embraced the opportunities when she started at UMSL for the Fall 2023 semester, then enrolled in the Accelerated Master’s program the next spring.

In addition to her role on the Dean’s Student Advisory Board, she is also the vice president of the UMSL Accounting Club and will graduate summa cum laude with a perfect 4.0 GPA. As Assistant Teaching Professor Marcia Countryman pointed out in her letter recommending Paubel as a student marshal for the December commencement ceremony, Paubel represented UMSL Business students during the college’s AACSB accreditation review, is a graduate of the inaugural RISE Academy leadership development program, is a member of multiple accounting organizations – including Phi Theta Kappa and the Missouri Society of CPAs as well as AICPA and CIMA – and she also organized the Student Advisory Board’s leadership retreat this fall.

Alex Paubel (standing) completed the inaugural RISE Academy program, a course designed to boost students’ leadership skills and professional development. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

“The retreat strengthened the student organization’s collaboration, communication and leadership – outcomes that reflect Alex’s outstanding planning and leadership skills,” Countryman wrote. “She is professional, dependable and an absolute joy to work with. With her high academic standing, outstanding character and exceptional leadership, Alex Paubel would be the ideal student to carry the banner for the new Ed G. Smith College of Business.”

As part of the Accelerated Master’s program, Paubel will earn her bachelor’s degree this December and then she will have 18 more credit hours to complete her master’s degree in accounting. She’s earned multiple scholarships to help the financial element, including the Community College President’s Scholarship, the Paul and Sharon Martin Accounting Scholarship, the Norbert Terree Memorial Scholarship, the Ernst & Young LLP Accounting Scholarship and the Kathleen T. Osborne Alumni Scholarship.

By the time she’s finished with her graduate degree, Paubel will have completed five different accounting internships. Learning the value of accepting as many internship opportunities as possible is something she gleaned both from the supportive UMSL faculty members such as Countryman and from her siblings’ experiences.

In the fall of 2024, she had an internship in UHY’s technology risk and compliance department. In the spring of 2025, she completed an audit and assurance internship at Anders, and that summer she worked a rotational internship at SFW Partners that allowed her to spend time with multiple departments. In the spring of 2026, she’ll be completing a corporate tax internship with RSM, and then in the summer she has an internship lined up with PwC’s digital assurance and transparency department.

“One of the challenges a lot of accounting students face is that they don’t really know what service line to go into,” Paubel said. “The classes aren’t exactly what the work experience will be like, so my approach to internships was to get that experience to figure out what I liked. So I tried IT audit, and I tried financial statement audits. With the summer internship, I tried all different departments and seeing the difference between a big firm versus a small firm versus mid-size. For me, getting all those internships helped me determine where I want to go in my career.”

With two more internships and 18 credit hours still on the horizon, she’s not making any firm decisions about her post-UMSL career just yet. She has taken a little time to reflect, though.

“I know a lot of people think there must be a big bar of expectations that my siblings have set, but I always saw it as a positive,” she said. “I never really felt that weight because I have my own expectations to live by. I’m not worried that I won’t live up to expectations because for me, even a little failure is an opportunity to learn. My parents, I can’t express enough how well they raised us. You can see it in each of our accomplishments and achievements and how we live life. They’ve always raised us to do our best.”

And that’s why the Paubels have created a lasting legacy at UMSL.