UMSL senior accounting major Kara Johnson (left) talks with Normandy resident Gregory Cain about his taxes in the UMSL Innovation Center as part of the Internal Revenue Service’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. The Ed G. Smith College of Business and Beta Alpha Psi are partnering with Gateway EITC Community Coalition to operate a VITA site during the 2026 tax season. (Photos by Derik Holtmann)
Perhaps nobody was more excited than Johnna Murray to see the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program arrive on the University of Missouri–St. Louis campus.
A free benefit offered by the Internal Revenue Service for over 50 years, VITA provides basic federal and state tax return preparation services for individuals and families earning under $69,000. UMSL had partnered with the Gateway EITC Community Coalition for several decades to make VITA available for regional taxpayers, holding a weekend-long course that trained volunteers to provide these helpful services for eligible residents at various off-campus locations in the weeks leading up to April 15. Murray, a former accountant and tax professional before joining UMSL’s accounting department in August 2000, said she came to deeply appreciate what UMSL’s participation in this program symbolized.
“I would see it’s VITA day, and there would be people from all over the community coming in,” said Murray, who has served as the faculty advisor for the UMSL chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, an honors organization for financial information students and professionals, since 2013. “I’d see people who are obviously not students coming to our campus and getting help, and I think that’s just the most amazing thing, that we can be that outreach into the community.”
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns disrupted UMSL’s goal of providing an on-campus location for the community to receive the VITA benefits, and for the past several years, the school has been limited to recruiting volunteers from its student population to assist with the tax preparations at other Gateway EITC locations. But Mark Fetters, the director of UMSL’s Center for Excellence in Financial Counseling who has long been involved with the VITA program, said developing a VITA site on UMSL’s campus has remained a priority.
“We recognized the value that VITA has for both the broader community and also for our students,” Fetters said. “So we continued the conversations with Gateway’s leadership about staying connected in that collaborative partnership, with a goal of having a VITA site on the UMSL campus.”
Fetters said this year, “all the stars aligned,” and with the recent opening of the UMSL Innovation Center, UMSL is now able to welcome community members seeking help with their tax returns. For Murray, who is now UMSL’s VITA site coordinator, it’s been a dream come true.
“I just can’t tell you how excited I am,” Murray said. “I’m so glad to see it here.”
So is Gregory Cain. A Normandy resident who lives minutes from the UMSL campus, Cain said it’s benefits like this that make him very thankful to have UMSL as a neighbor.
“UMSL does a lot for the community,” Cain said.
“This is a good program. We’re senior citizens, stay right around the corner, so it was convenient for me, and it’s a very good program.”
UMSL senior accounting majors Nayesha Sullivan and Nate Hall discuss an income tax-related issue during their participation in UMSL’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.
UMSL’s VITA site opened February 19, offering walk-in assistance every Thursday night, from 5-8 p.m., through April 9 at the Innovation Center. It’s the ultimate win-win scenario, said Murray, who noted that the Beta Alpha Psi students are fulfilling their community service requirement through the VITA program. Residents get the advantages of free tax support with no appointment required, mere steps away from a Metrolink stop, while UMSL students get meaningful, real-world experience.
“It is so wonderful,” Murray said. “We have students who come into the program, they do their training, and if it’s their first year, you can see them grow. I’ve only been doing this two or three weeks now, but I have seen students come in going from, ‘I don’t even know where to start,’ to jumping in and preparing tax returns, and it’s wonderful to see. It’s a huge progression. We talk about experiential learning for our students, that they get to actually have that practice, they get to develop those skills so they’re able to talk to clients like they would as the professional that they’re going to be in a few years.”
Nayesha Sullivan, a senior working toward a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the Ed G. Smith College of Business, said volunteering with the VITA program provides benefits for students that extend beyond the classroom, or even the professional realm.
“We really get out of our comfort zone talking to clients, learning or practicing our communication skills,” Sullivan said. “Obviously, we get to work as accounting students, we get to work with taxes and different software and looking at different forms and tax papers, but to me, it’s building all kinds of skills, not just for accounting, but for life as well. I think it’s really a well-rounded experience to prepare you for entering the workforce in general.”
Nate Hall, who is also a senior in the accounting program, said with the VITA program, UMSL has provided the unique opportunity to put his classroom experience immediately to work.
“I’m actually in my income tax class right now, so I’m getting to use everything I’m learning in class by doing tax returns,” Hall said. “It’s basically getting a bunch of experience with different situations, right? Because everybody’s situation is different. There’s just so many tax law caveats, the things that can make each tax return special, so it’s great to get that exposure. I think this will be great for me to take into a job interview, saying that I have that experience.”
As for the warm feeling that comes from providing a beneficial service for members of the community, that’s just icing on the cake.
“It does feel great,” Hall said. “You know, that’s always a selfish part of volunteering and just getting to do something that really is a helpful impact to the people that you’re serving.”
“Oh, they’re so grateful,” Sullivan agreed. “I was talking to a lady a few days ago, and she’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m just so happy you guys are here, thank you, thank you.’ They’re just very grateful to have somebody who’s giving up their time to work with them and help them with this.”
