Christian Liner has spent the last 16 years building an impressive career in accounting and finance. After earning his bachelor’s degree in accounting at Eastern Michigan University and an MBA at Cleary University, he worked in auditing for two of the Big Four accounting firms.
He then shifted to roles as a senior accountant and accounting manager in the banking industry before moving to the nonprofit space.
“I really found my niche,” said Liner, 39, who is now controller and director of finance at Jewish Family Service of Metropolitan Detroit.
He’s also an adjunct instructor at Baker College, in Owosso, where he teaches principles of finance.
It comes as no surprise that Liner said he’s found his calling in accounting. But while a student at Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School in Detroit, he almost missed the opportunity.
“I took my first accounting class in ninth grade, but I did not do well at all and swore up and down that ‘I will not touch another accounting book,’” he said.
Fast-forward two years. Unbeknownst to Liner, he got a second chance, when he signed up for NAF’s Academy of Finance.
“I thought it was going to be only about finance,” said Liner. “I didn’t even know accounting was a part of it. But, when I tell you that class changed my life, I’ve been doing accounting for the last 16 years.”
NAF’s Academy of Finance is the education nonprofit’s longest running and largest career pathway, and students have access to career-focused curricula and participate in work-based learning. Nearly 32,000 students are enrolled at 171 Academies of Finance nationwide.
The academies are small learning communities within public high schools or districts – Liner took courses on site at Golightly Education Center in Detroit, for example – that support students in igniting their career aspirations, growing valuable professional and industry skills, and connecting with industry experts through career-focused curricula and work-based learning.
It was through the NAF Academy of Finance that Liner met Hank Hubbard, the CEO Emeritus of One Detroit Credit Union, who was then part of the academy’s advisory board.
“By far, the most rewarding part of that board was that we got to interact with the students and had a few assigned to us to mentor each year,” said Hubbard. “What I got out of each experience was directly related to how engaged they were.”
Soon after they met, Hubbard helped Liner find his first internship, at a local credit union where he spent two summers in high school.
“From then on, he has discussed each of his possible career moves with me,” said Hubbard. “I can’t take any credit for them, but it was always a thrill to watch him succeed.”
Part of that success brought the mentor-mentee relationship full circle. Before Hubbard retired from One Detroit Credit Union, Liner served for five years as a board member.
“When I say the Academy of Finance was the foundation of my life, my network, I mean it,” said Liner. “I always tell people it’s not what you know, it’s who you know, and being a part of that really opened things up. Because now Hank’s friends are my friends, and if I have a question or need access to a certain group, I’m able to have that through the connections that I made at my NAF academy.”
Liner hopes to encourage more students to take part in NAF academies, even if they have no aspirations to study accounting or business later on.
“Everyone needs to know how much money is coming into their household, how much money is going out,” he said.
Now that he’s both a teacher and a parent, Liner knows how the right approach and the right person can make all the difference.
“It was just the way that they taught it at the Academy of Finance,” he said. “And I try to tell kids today, just because you try something and it doesn’t work out, try it again. The way it was conveyed to me the second time, I really caught on and turned it into a career.”
It also taught him the importance of paying it forward.
“I don’t feel like I’m successful until I bring people through the same door I walk through,” he said.
About NAF: NAF provides access to opportunities for high school students and their communities, by bringing schools and businesses together to better prepare the next generation of leaders for college, career, and future success. Visit www.naf.org to learn more.
Members of the editorial and news staff of The Detroit News were not involved in the creation of this content.
