The Virginia Society of CPAs Educational Foundation has reached its $100,000 goal to launch the Curtis C. Duke and Dr. Ruth Coles Harris Scholarship, which will support underrepresented students in pursuit of CPA licensure.
The scholarship honors the first Black male and female CPAs certified in Virginia. The VSCPA plans to award the scholarship annually to a local Black/African-American college student, with the first recipient to be announced this June.
The VSCPA Educational Foundation began funding the scholarship in 2021, which recognized
“Over the past few years, the VSCPA has demonstrated a strong commitment to increasing the diversity of the CPA profession, through our foundation and other diversity-related initiatives,” said VSCPA president and CEO Stephanie Peters, in a statement. “It’s only fitting we launch a new scholarship to recognize the pioneering Curtis Duke and Dr. Ruth Coles Harris. I’m so proud of our 2021 board chair Anne Hagen for spearheading this campaign and am grateful to our founding donors and the entire membership for recognizing this need and making the scholarship a reality.”
The Duke-Harris Scholarship joins other diversity-minded scholarships from the state society, including the Samuel A. Derieux, CPA, Memorial Scholarship; the Thomas M. Berry Jr. Scholarship; the VSCPA Past Presidents Scholarship; and a slew of undergraduate and graduate awards. All recipients of the foundation’s scholarships will be announced in June, with scholarships ranging from $1,500 to $3,000 each.
More information on the Curtis C. Duke and Dr. Ruth Coles Harris Scholarship is available on the VSCPA's
