Dalton Tunis

Nearly six years after graduating from Indiana State University, Dalton Tunis, ’15, has landed his dream job as the business manager at the North Judson San Pierre School Corporation.

Since graduating, Tunis worked odds and ends farm jobs while looking for a job in the accounting field, eventually landing a staff accountant position at Pratt Industries in Valparaiso, one of the largest box plants in the U.S.

“It was a great starting job that helped me learn a lot during my three and a half years, and I am very thankful for my time,” Tunis said. “It was a great place to work and I learned a lot of things that help me with my position with the school corporation.”

Currently, Tunis is learning the ropes from his soon-to-be predecessor before taking on the position himself on March 1.

“As the business manager, I serve as the financial leader of the school corporation, overseeing the money that is coming in or going out,” he said. “A big part of the job is budgeting for the coming year so the school has the funds it needs for educational and operational purposes the whole school year.”

Tunis and his wife, Lauren, have a daughter, Gracelynn, and have been working on growing their family farm with cattle and other small livestock.

“Cattle is our main focus at the moment, but we plan on continuing to grow the farm every year and expanding into more and more,” he said. “Growing and operating the Tunis Family Farm has been another one of my focuses after graduating ISU.”

Tunis lives just a 10-minute drive from the school corporation office where he also serves as a varsity football coach.

“This is the job I have wanted for 10 years ever since I started my college accounting career at Indiana State,” he said. “I worked for the school for three summers while I was going to Indiana State in order to earn money for school, so to be able to come back as the head of financials is a dream come true. I am so excited for this new career and am thankful that Indiana State gave me the tools to land my dream job.”

After starting his college career with a sports management major, Tunis changed his major to accounting.

“I enjoy working with numbers, money, and the finances behind running a company, so I decided I would be better fit for a business major,” he said. “When I transferred to the Scott College of Business, one of my first classes was in accounting, and I loved it and knew it was what I wanted in a career.”

Tunis said his professors pushed him to do and be better in the classroom.

“I had great professors at the Scott College of Business. I’ve always been a driven person and strive to achieve more, but my professors gave me the extra push to do those things and more,” he said. “I made a lot of lifelong friends and one of best decisions made was to get away from home. My professors knew me and they felt like family.”