Business students have some accounting to do – tallying scholarship fund wins

A series of awards has recently netted thousands of dollars’ worth of scholarship funds that will benefit Radford business students. 

One pair of Highlanders just took the top two prizes at Student Night for Roanoke’s chapter of the Virginia Society of CPAs. Held April 30 in Christiansburg, Virginia, the event – which was attended by seven Radford students – also included a three-person panel discussion and the presentation of a set of scholarships. 

Senior Colin O’Brien of Christiansburg scored $1,000 for first place with his 500-word written essay, while Nick Leon-Guzman, a rising senior from Rocky Mount, Virginia, captured second place to take home $750. They are both accounting majors. 

Their successes follow several earlier academic windfalls of late. 

In December, business students Samantha Greer and Jackson Hughes both received $4,000 each from the Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates (RFC) Educational Foundation for submitting replies to three essay questions and then going before the RFC selection committee. 

Hughes, an accounting and management double major from Virginia Beach, Virginia, said the award was “a very, very, very nice thing to bring back to my family during Christmas break, because I hadn’t told them I’d won it. I went home and showed them the email, and I was like, ‘Hey, I just got four grand!’ That made my mom very happy.”

Greer, an accounting major on track to graduate in December, regularly drives to campus from her home in Fort Chiswell, Virginia, and the extra funds offered a range of welcome assistance. 

“I commute 45 minutes to school every day … five days a week … and it helped me afford gas and maintenance for my car, books and programs for the spring semester and meals during the week,” she explained. “The scholarship award was an amazing investment in my education by RFC. It was very helpful and very much appreciated.” 

Both Greer and Hughes are members of Beta Alpha Psi (BAP), the international society for accounting, finance and information systems majors, and Radford’s BAP chapter took an additional $1,000 through the program, money that will go toward covering group members’ travel expenses to conferences. 

The RFC Educational Foundation was formed in 2000, according to the firm, “to provide scholarship or grant funds for students of the professions, including accounting, law, medicine and engineering and students who have an interest in a career in governmental service, public administration or public service in Virginia.”

Two Radford alums – graduates of the business school who are both partners within major accounting firms – also recently supported Beta Alpha Psi and its student members by making contributions to the society. 

Late last year, Doug Nickerson '95, a Virginia-certified construction auditor who works for Keiter CPAs of Glen Allen, Virginia, arranged for his firm to contribute $2,000 for BAP. Then last month, Audra Shekleton ’04, an assurance partner with the firm of Ernst & Young, made a donation to Radford’s foundation – a sum matched by her company – and she earmarked $1,000 of that gift to go toward the student group.

"Donations from CPA firms are an investment in our chapter, our members and the future of the accounting profession both statewide and in the New River Valley,” said Assistant Professor of Accounting Rob Warren. 

“The generous donations from RFC, Keiter and Ernst & Young will enable our chapters to send our members to regional and national conferences where they will learn more about exciting careers in accounting, meet members from other schools and network with future employers."