Bookkeeper By Day, Bernie the Bearcat By Night: Meet Isabella Doring (BBA, ’25)

By day, Macaulay Honors student Isabella Doring (BBA, ’25) studies accounting and works as a bookkeeper for Million Dollar Women, a social venture for female entrepreneurs. But a whole different personality came out recently when Isabella donned the Bernie the Bearcat suit for the Battle of Lexington basketball game between the Baruch Bearcats and the Hunter Hawks, and the CUNY Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Final against the John Jay Bloodhounds. To tell us more, Isabella sat down for an interview with Zicklin News. 

Zicklin News: Tell us about yourself. 

Isabella Doring: I grew up in Orange County, NY, and I’m a fourth-year accounting major in the Macaulay Honors program. I’m a student-athlete—I’ve played on the Baruch women’s volleyball team all four years, and I was captain for the 2024 season. 

ZN: Why did you decide to study accounting at the Zicklin School of Business? 

Isabella: I wanted to study business in New York and I also wanted to learn languages and study abroad, so at first I was going to major in international business. But after taking my first accounting class here, I switched my major to accounting.  

ZN: How did you get to be the Baruch mascot? 

Isabella: It’s pretty informal. My roommate was Bernie the Bearcat at last year’s Battle of Lexington and being a goofball is right up my alley, so I wanted to do it too. From playing volleyball, I know pretty much everyone in the athletics department, so I just asked the assistant athletics director if I could do it, and she said, “Sure!” 

ZN: Is it a paid position? 

Isabella: Yes, I get minimum wage—$16.50 per hour. I also work as an attendant in the Baruch gym so it’s just extra hours added to my timesheet. 

ZN: What’s your favorite thing about being Bernie the Bearcat? 

Isabella: Getting to be super animated and fun and silly. Not that I’m embarrassed to act like that normally, but it’s just more fun when you’re playing a character. I especially like dancing—over the summer I got into country line dancing and that’s where all my Bernie moves come from. We dance to songs by Pitbull, Kesha, Post Malone—it’s super fun. 

ZN: Is there anything you don’t like about it? 

Isabella: I get really sweaty because the suit is very hot. I also can’t see very well, but that’s OK! 

ZN: Tell me about some of your favorite professors or classes. 

Isabella: Honestly, I’ve loved all my accounting professors—I feel like there’s a stigma that Zicklin’s accounting classes are really hard, but I’ve had such great experiences with all of them. I was especially inspired by my Financial Accounting I instructor, Diana Weng. She’s one of the reasons I stayed in accounting. She told us we needed to take our education into our own hands. I’d never heard a professor say that before. As students, we often have this mindset of complaining, “Oh, I have to go to class, I have to do homework, it’s such a drag.” But no, we choose to be here, and our college experience is really what we make of it. I’ve had a lot of difficult experiences in my life and it was very motivating to hear that. 

ZN: Could you tell us more about that? 

Isabella: I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis in my freshman year. It’s an autoimmune disease that causes joint pain that mainly affected my spine. It could have derailed my athletic career, but I made major lifestyle changes by switching to a fully whole-foods, plant-based diet and focusing on weight training and mobility exercises during workouts. Now I’m all better. I never needed medication, and my condition is totally in remission. I’m happy, healthy, and feeling good! 

ZN: That’s an amazing story! What’s next for you? 

Isabella: I’m graduating with my BBA in December, and then I’ll spend a semester doing a full-time internship in taxation. Then I’m returning to Zicklin for the MS in Taxation program. 

ZN: Can you tell us where you’ll be doing an internship? 

Isabella: I’ve received offers from both PwC and KPMG. I haven’t decided which one to accept yet. 

ZN: Sounds like a good problem to have! 

Isabella: Yes! The best problem to have! 

Categories: Alumni News, News, Student News