The New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJCPA) recently awarded $221,500 in scholarships to 53 New Jersey-based high school and college students interested in pursuing careers in accounting.
A total of 35 college students and 18 high school students were selected from the 146 scholarship applicants. The winners received their awards April 27 at the Pines Manor in Edison.
The college students each received between $2,000 and $6,500. Winners had to be accounting students at New Jersey colleges or universities who are currently in their junior year or in their senior year and entering an accounting-related graduate program.
The award recipients attend the following colleges and universities: The College of New Jersey, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Georgian Court University, Kean University, Monmouth University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Ramapo College of New Jersey, Rider University, Rowan University, Rutgers University, Saint Peter’s University, Seton Hall University and William Paterson University of New Jersey.
Eighteen high school students, who are college-bound and intend to major in accounting or obtain a concentration in accounting, received $1,500 each.
Eight of the high school winners and two of the college winners received the Deloitte Foundation NJCPA Scholars Award. Part of a pilot program, the scholarships were created to open the doors to the accounting profession for New Jersey high school seniors who are racially or ethnically diverse and considering accounting as their college major.
The Deloitte scholarship winners came from six New Jersey high schools: Dwight Morrow High School, Rahway High School, Sayreville War Memorial High School, West Orange High School, Union High School and Williamstown High School. The two college recipients were from Saint Peter’s University and Seton Hall University.
Other high school recipients were from the following schools: Manalapan High School, Millburn Senior High School, Montville Township High School, Park Ridge High School, Parsippany Hills High School, Ridgefield Park Junior/Senior High School, Washington Township High School, Wayne Valley High School and West Deptford High School.
“We are extremely pleased to be distributing these awards. The scholarship program was not only designed to assist the students financially but also to motivate them to pursue an accounting career,” said Henrietta Fuchs, CPA, president of the NJCPA Scholarship Fund, partner at CohnReznick LLP and a former scholarship recipient herself.
“It’s rewarding to be among such enthusiastic students who are on their way to becoming our future CPAs and accounting professionals,” said Ralph Albert Thomas, CPA (DC), CGMA, CEO and executive director of the NJCPA. “The generosity of our members and firm/company benefactors is unsurpassed.”
The scholarships also included the following “in-name-of” awards, honoring former and current NJCPA members:
- Bowman & Company, LLP, in memory of John F. Dailey Jr.
- Bowman & Company in memory of Lisa Donahue
- Council of Past Presidents
- In Honor of NJCPA Past President Michael Polito
- In Honor of Ralph Albert Thomas, NJCPA CEO & Executive Director
- In Memory of Howard Bookbinder
- In Memory of NJCPA Past President John F. Dailey, Jr.
- In Memory of Frederick and Lenore Horn
- In Memory of NJCPA Past President John S. Lee
- In Memory of NJCPA Past President Z. Thaddeus Zawacki
- PKF O’Connor Davies in memory of Stephen Mannuzza
- WilkinGuttenplan in memory of Jules C. Frankel
- WithumSmith+Brown in honor of NJCPA Past President Frank Boutillette
The NJCPA Scholarship Fund has awarded more than $7 million to high school and college students since its inception in the 1960s. The fund has supported more than 1,700 New Jersey students on their way to becoming CPAs. Scholarship winners had to meet criteria regarding academic performance, standardized test scores, essays and personal interviews. NJCPA members assisted by reading essays and conducting interviews during the selection process.
