News Stories

The Accounting Department hosted the Annual Accounting Awards Banquet in Locatelli Center on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. Over 115 professionals, faculty, students, and guests gathered to honor 27 SCU Accounting & A&IS students as they received scholarships and awards. We were honored to have many distinguished alumni, including several of our Accounting Advisory Board and Accounting Alumni Board members, and even two guests from Hawaii, attend the event.

Accounting and A&IS majors submitted applications for these scholarships in March and April. Over $104,000 in scholarships and awards, funded by generous contributions and grants from accounting organizations, alumni, faculty, public accounting firms, and Silicon Valley Companies, were presented to the students.  The evening commenced with a reception, followed by plated dinner, and an engaging awards program moderated by Dr. Siqi Li, Dr. Michael Calegari and Dr. Matthew Cedergren.   Michael and Matthew shared interesting, fun facts about each of the student scholarship recipients and challenged the audience to match the student with their fun fact.  Our SCU accounting students are a fun group with many unique hobbies and interests.

Seniors Isabella Estrada ‘25 (Accounting) and Lane Tamagawa‘24 (A&IS) received the O. Robert Anderson Accounting Award, which is awarded annually to the graduating senior accounting and A&IS majors judged outstanding in scholarship, leadership, and service by the faculty of the department. In addition, Nicholas Saba ’25 received the Jerry Kasner Accounting Award, which is given annually to an outstanding SCU accounting student selected by the Silicon Valley Chapter of the California Society of CPAs.  Morris Su ‘26 received the Thomas B. Maier Memorial Award for outstanding achievement as the junior accounting student with the highest GPA.

This year we are especially grateful for the Justin Ebner Endowed Scholarship that sponsored two - $12,000 scholarships.  John and Dede Ebner met on campus with recipients Morris Su ’26 and Kiara Pech Ticlavilca ’27 since they were unable to attend the Awards Banquet. 

Michael McAndrews, Abbott, Stringham & Lynch, former Partner, presented the Alumnus of the Year award to Kevin Reagan, and Kevin encouraged students to enjoy the accounting journey and never give up.  Read more about Kevin here.  Two alumni, Alan Nguyen and Ryan Chew, received the inaugural Rising Alumni Impact Award.  Lindsey Piziali, PwC, Partner, introduced Alan Nguyen, sharing her appreciation for his professional excellence and dedicated community service. Lewis Chew, Accounting Advisory Board member, introduced his son, Ryan, highlighting his active involvement at Santa Clara since graduating 10 years ago.  Read more about Alan and Ryan here. 

Jessica Pu (SCUAA President, Accounting Class of 2025), along with senior Accounting Association officers Mark Aquilio, Brendan Arias, Ingrid Chou, and Maia Murphy presented the Professor of the Year award to Dr. Matthew Cedergren.  In addition to his greatly appreciated passion and enthusiasm as a professor, Dr. Cedergren is also the Accounting Association faculty advisor, where he goes above and beyond to support the accounting program. Read more about Dr. Cedergren here.

The complete list of 2025 Award and Scholarship recipients may be viewed here. Photos from the event may be viewed here.

Photo credits: Jim Gensheimer

Article written by Linda Zuccaro, Program Manager, CARE