Video by Ernst & Young

Ernst & Young Sponsors Scholarships, Hires Grads, Funds Programs

“Volunteering is an important part of our culture,” says the Ernst & Young Web site, “but we don’t simply provide an extra pair of hands.”

During the years of its remarkable relationship with the Cal State Northridge College of Business and Economics, the global professional services firm has served as a model for how one company can “create positive change in communities close to home and around the world.”

It’s what President Jolene Koester calls “walking the walk.” Ernst & Young has sponsored major programs in the college, contributed generously to scholarships for business majors, established internships, welcomed CSUN graduates into its ranks, even gone so far as to lend two top partners to teach tax and audit courses at CSUN.

“Ernst & Young has shown itself to be the best kind of friend to the university,” said the president. “It was with us when the economy was soaring, and now that we are challenged by budget reductions, it’s still here with every kind of corporate support imaginable.”

“We are excited to provide CSUN with these critical resources,” said Peter Griffith, Ernst & Young vice chair. “We have been extremely happy with the quality of CSUN students and are looking forward to having even more of them join our firm in the years ahead.”

The critical resources include a $151,000 grant that in 2007 established The Ernst & Young Seminar in Professional Leadership. In small group settings led by professionals from the company, up to 90 junior and senior accounting and information systems majors per year learn how to “navigate a corporate or business culture that is very different from the one they experience while they’re in college,” said Paul Lazarony, associate chair of the Department of Accounting and Information Systems.

A year later, a number of CSUN alumni and friends—all Ernst & Young professionals—matched the firm’s $500,000 gift to the business college. Their joint donation will pour more than $1 million into university programs over a five-year period.

It also made possible the Ernst & Young Center for Careers in Accounting and Information Systems, providing career counseling and placement services to more than 1,300 accounting and information systems students. And at a time when internships are a rare commodity for college students, it will enable the return of the Winter Accounting Internship Program for CSUN students.

The company continues to make its imprint felt. Two Ernst & Young partners—Jeff Rosen ’83, MS ‘84 and Jeff Tolin—signed on to teach audit and tax courses at CSUN, and the firm also has committed to fund as many as five annual Ernst & Young tax fellows. It also supports an annual business case competition, an all-important rite of passage for business honors students, and sponsors the Ernst & Young Diversity Award through the Beta Alpha Psi business fraternity.

Griffith is proud of the firm’s partnership with CSUN. “It’s critical,” he said, “for organizations like Ernst & Young to provide leadership and financial support so that CSUN can continue its high level of academic and professional excellence for these students.”

— Brenda Roberts

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