The American Institute of CPAs has announced the recipients of the 2020 George Willie Ethnically Diverse Student Scholarship and Internship Program.
The annual program provides scholarships and internships to five ethnic minority accounting students who are pursuing the CPA license. The AICPA’s scholarship provides up to $20,000 to each student to assist with their final year of study. Each recipient also gains an internship opportunity during the 2021 busy season (January through April), sponsored by an AICPA Private Company Practice Section member firm.
The program honors George Willie, a former chair of the AICPA’s PCPS Executive Committee and the AICPA Minority Initiatives Committee. Over Willie’s 35-year career, he promoted accounting careers to students and young professionals pursuing the CPA license.
“The George Willie program is a great opportunity to help build diversity within the profession,” said Shelly Frazier, senior manager of diversity and inclusion for the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, in a statement. “It supports the accounting student pipeline for ethnic minorities that our profession is in such great need of, and it helps them transition into the profession. Simultaneously, it offers firms a new opportunity toward improving the diversity in their workplace. So far, the program has been a been a ‘win’ for both the student/pipeline and the firms/profession.”
“Practical experience gained through an internship helps prepare accounting students for a successful career as a CPA,” said Carl Peterson, Association of International Certified Professional Accountants’ vice president of small firm interests, in a statement. “This program gives students that hands-on experience and financial support to complete education, while also providing our firms qualified candidates to assist them during their busy season.”
Recipients of this year’s George Willie Scholarship and Internship, as well as the firms they are interning with and the universities they are attending, are as follows:
- Tairu Jozatis: OnTarget CPA; Purdue University (Northwest)
- Maria Moy: Boyum Barenscheer; University of Minnesota — Twin Cities
- Audie Murphy: Aronson; University of Baltimore
- Thy Thuy Nguyen: Sensiba San Filippo; California State University, Los Angeles
- Amber Richmond: Reynolds, Bone Griesbeck; University of Memphis
For more information on the scholarship, head to ThisWaytoCPA’s site here. Student applications for the next George Willie Scholarship and Internship are open now through Nov. 1, 2020. Firms interested in providing an internship opportunity can visit aicpa.org/pcpsscholarship for more details.
