Minority students earn CPA scholarship
WESTFIELD, Ind. (WISH) — People of color remain significantly underrepresented in the accounting field despite a growing demand, but the Indiana CPA Society has acted to change that with a free, yearlong CPA training program for high school students to advance diversity in the profession.
Two Westfield High School students are taking a big step toward their future careers with the INCPAS Scholars program. Junior Michael Miller and senior Stephany Boateng are among 22 chosen for the program designed to train racial or ethnic minorities to become certified public accountants.
Miller said, “I’m mostly excited about seeing the accounting firms and how they operate, just seeing their operations on the inside and everything in that. I’m also excited about the college visits.”
Miller says he’s also excited to learn from top companies including financial institution J.P. Morgan .
“I’m hoping to get experience, networking, knowing different people, just stuff like that,” he said.
For Boateng, the passion for accounting didn’t happen until she signed up for a class. “I’ve always been interested in math and business. I just didn’t know what exactly until I took an accounting class last year, and I fell in love with it.”
When the INCPAS Scholars CPA training program started in 2011, its focus was to build up underrepresented communities, especially Black and Hispanic or Latino students who didn’t know the field was a good option. Just 7% of CPAs in the U.S. are Black, or Hispanic or Latino.
Courtney Kincaid, president and CEO of INCPAS, said, “The number of graduates coming out of accounting programs doesn’t reflect the clientele they will serve and we think that’s a very important factor.”
The No. 1 goal of the program has been to see the students go on to college. In 2023, all 22 of the scholars went to college after they completed the program. “Many of these students are first-generation college students, so understanding what college students look like, understanding what college campuses looks like, what you need to succeed there,” Kincaid said.
“We visit campuses. We talk about financial aid, and we have a lot of different goals but, ultimately, we hope they become CPAs in the future.”
The application process for the 2025-2026 scholarship program remained open Thursday.
Most Popular
Comments / 0