$144,000 awarded to deserving college students through annual scholarship
The Florida Board of Accountancy (FBA), a professional regulation board of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), today announced the 2021 recipients of the Clay Ford Scholarship. The scholarships are awarded to minority students who are Florida residents in an approved accounting education program and are pursuing their fifth year, which is required to become a certified public accountant (CPA).
“I am so proud of these fifth-year accounting students on this well-deserved recognition of their hard work,” said DBPR Secretary Julie I. Brown. “CPAs play a vital role in our state and the Clay Ford Scholarship provides recipients a pathway to complete the education requirements to become a licensed CPA and the momentum to begin their accounting careers.”
The Clay Ford scholarships are administered through the CPA Education Minority Assistance Program, which was created in 1999 to encourage minorities to enter the CPA profession. The scholarships are awarded on a combination of criteria related to both financial need and scholastic ability and performance.
The CPA Education Minority Assistance Program is funded by a portion from each individual and CPA firm license fee. Through the award, scholarship applicants may be awarded up to $6,000 per semester for a maximum of two semesters. In 2021, a total of $144,000 was dispersed across 24 total eligible semester hours.
2021 Clay Ford Scholarship recipients include:
- Sharielle Centi (University of Florida)
- Latrice Fields (University of West Florida)
- Lisbet Fundora Pereira (Florida Atlantic University)
- Sofia Gomez (University of Florida)
- Nguyet Thi Minh Hoang (University of South Florida)
- Abigail Jagos (University of South Florida)
- Katherine Jones (University of West Florida)
- Charvae Gaines (Florida Atlantic University)
- Zhishan Liang (Florida Gulf Coast University)
- Isabella Moorman-Lage (University of Tampa)
- Amy Nguyen (University of Central Florida)
- Crystal Point Dujour (Florida Atlantic University)
- Bryanna Rodriguez (University of Florida)
- Jodi Salzman (Florida Atlantic University)
- Emily Sherwood (University of Florida)
Applications are accepted each year on a rolling basis and will be applied to the appropriate school year. The deadline for applications for the 2022-2023 school year is June 1, 2022. Applications are available online at myfloridalicense.com/CPAScholarship.
The Department of Business and Professional Regulation licenses and regulates more than one million businesses and professionals in the State of Florida, including accountants, architects and interior designers, asbestos consultants, athlete agents, auctioneers, barbers, building code administrators and inspectors, community association managers, construction contractors, cosmetologists, electrical contractors, employee leasing companies, geologists, home inspectors, landscape architects, mold assessors and remediators, pilot commissioners, real estate appraisers and brokers, and veterinarians, as well as businesses dealing in alcoholic beverages, tobacco, food service, public lodging, pari-mutuel wagering, and condominiums, timeshares and other cooperative residential arrangements. The Department’s mission is to license efficiently and regulate fairly. For more information, visit myfloridalicense.com.
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