RSM US has awarded nine of its employees $90,000 ($10,000 each) and nine paid-time-off days as part of the firm’s Pursue Your Passion program.

Started in 2016 to honor the firm’s 90th anniversary, Pursue Your Passion annually selects a group of ambitious winners via a team comprising staff members and partners.

“At RSM, we understand the significance of supporting our people and encouraging them to achieve both their professional and personal goals,” said Doug Opheim, chief financial officer of RSM US and chair of the RSM US Foundation, in a statement. “Through our Pursue Your Passion program, we’re excited to provide nine of our people the opportunity to live out those dreams. We’re truly humbled by the projects that our winners choose to pursue each year, and we’re excited to hear about their experiences as they complete their activities.”

RSM US’s 2020 Pursue Your Passion winners, their projects and links to their stories include:

• Christopher Brophey (tax manager; Milwaukee): Planning a trip with his son and wife to England after being deemed cancer-free.

• Marie-Annette Donaghue (manager, North American pursuit and proposal team; Dallas): Making a return trip to Kenya to help children at a small orphanage explore a nearby national park and provide support to bolster the orphanage’s self-sufficiency.

• Alyssa Lavelle (resource manager; New York): Honoring her mother’s memory by raising funds and awareness for colon cancer, as well as establishing an independent foundation in her mother’s name.

• Josh Milazzo (audit assurance supervisor; Jacksonville, Florida): Riding the Pacific Coast Highway with his dad in remembrance of his younger brother.

• Alma Padilla (tax manager; Houston): Purchasing gifts for organizations who helped when her daughter received treatment at Texas Children’s Hospital.

• Joshua Scott (tax senior associate; Kansas City, Missouri): Creating a documentary film sharing the stories of people struggling with income inequality and homelessness.

• Joshua Sweeting (audit manager; Denver): Meeting Ruben, a Bolivian teen he has sponsored for several years through Compassion International, as well as sponsoring a second child in the program.

• Julio Trejo (tax associate; Las Vegas): Continuing training to run a marathon and helping others by raising funds to fight childhood obesity.

• Ryan Weitz (audit assurance supervisor; Boston): Backpacking through Alaska’s Arrigetch Peaks and donating photography sales proceeds to RSM’s Birdies Fore Love program.

For more on the Pursue Your Passion program, head to RSM’s site here.