New Scholarship Program Honors Dedicated Accounting Professor

They're not independently wealthy. They don't represent a major corporation. And no one is executing an estate. Anya Guzman, ’05, Maria Ryan, ’88, Andrea Castro, ’01, and Elizabeth Gerow, ’05, may not fit the typical profile of people who establish scholarships, but that didn't stop them from setting out last spring to create an endowment in honor of their favorite teacher, with whom they'd all worked closely as either aides or Capstone students, Professor of Accounting Barbara Cassidy (at left).

"We didn't see any barriers," says Guzman, an accountant with Guaranty Bank, of the foursome's journey into a space normally reserved for the affluent. "We knew it wouldn't be hard getting people to give money if we asked her students, both current ones and alumni. She's been at St. Edward's more than 20 years, and she gets to know her students very well."

After getting Cassidy's blessing - "I told them I planned to fund a scholarship through my will, and Maria responded, 'We want you to see your dream,'" says Cassidy, "and that brought me to tears." Guzman and the rest contacted Director of Development Lisa Lee, MBA ’06, to set up the Barbara Cassidy Honorary Endowed Scholarship. When it becomes active by late 2010, the scholarship will go to undergraduate accounting students with a minimum 3.0 grade point average and 60 hours, with preference to first-generation college students like Cassidy.

Endowment Quickly Grows
In the months that have followed, the endowment was able to attract a quarter of the needed $100,000 from Cassidy's former students and even parents of her current students.

For their part, Cassidy and her husband, Brian, have promised to match funds up to $10,000 - an added fundraising boost that Guzman says came as a nice surprise. Cassidy recently announced her departure from St. Edward's this fall, and while Guzman says she's sad to see Cassidy go, she finds the timing serendipitous: "This is a gift from everyone to her. So as it turns out, our timing was perfect."

Help this special endowment grow, make your gift now.