PALO ALTO, Calif., June 29, 2009 – The Silicon Valley Chapter of Financial Executives International (FEI), the pre­em­i­nent asso­ci­a­tion for finan­cial exec­u­tives, today announced the names of 12 local col­lege stu­dents who were selected as the win­ners of the 2009 FEI Silicon Valley Chapter Scholarships.

The schol­ar­ships are awarded to stu­dents who show tal­ent and apti­tude for cor­po­rate finance or account­ing and demon­strate poten­tial to serve as future lead­ers in these fields. Each of the win­ners will receive schol­ar­ship awards of $4,000, as well as recog­ni­tion and net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties at a din­ner meet­ing of Silicon Valley FEI mem­bers to be held in the fall.

“We are inspired by the remark­able achieve­ments that all of our schol­ar­ship win­ners have demon­strated in their col­le­giate pur­suits — both in and out of the class­room,” said Greg Overholtzer, chair­man of the schol­ar­ship com­mit­tee for the Silicon Valley Chapter of FEI. “These young men and women are the future lead­ers of the cor­po­rate finance and account­ing indus­try and we are so pleased to be able rec­og­nize them for their excep­tional work and dedication.”

One of the many excep­tional stu­dents to receive the 2009 FEI Silicon Valley Chapter Scholarship is Ashley Carrick, a junior with a 3.64 grade point aver­age (GPA) at the Walter A. Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley.

Carrick has got­ten involved with the Latino Business Student Association at the uni­ver­sity where she has served in three board-level posi­tions. As VP of Community Service, Carrick col­lab­o­rated with cor­po­rate spon­sors and planned sev­eral com­mu­nity ser­vice events that brought stu­dents and cor­po­rate cit­i­zens together to serve local needs. Carrick has also worked as a finance intern at Google for three con­sec­u­tive sum­mers where she has served under the U.S. Controller, devel­oped a more stream­lined monthly clos­ing process, and also helped form a new part­ner­ship between Google and the American Cancer Society.

“The FEI schol­ar­ship means so much to me, espe­cially since I rely on finan­cial aid and employ­ment to fund my edu­ca­tion,” said Carrick. “The FEI schol­ar­ship award will help off­set the loss of California state grants, which are being cut due to the eco­nomic cri­sis. I am so grate­ful to FEI for this recognition.”

The FEI Silicon Valley Chapter Scholarship is also help­ing San Jose State University (SJSU) senior Maria Pyatigorsky, who moved to the U.S. less than three years ago from Russia. Pyatigorsky, who speaks four lan­guages, enrolled in the busi­ness pro­gram and dis­cov­ered that she had a pas­sion for finance. She was accepted to SJSU’s Honor’s pro­gram and secured a one-year intern­ship with MorganStanley SmithBarney. Her goal is to find a job that allows her to use her finance skills to demon­strate the cost ben­e­fits of “going green.”

“Winning the FEI schol­ar­ship means a great deal to me and my fam­ily,” said Pyatigorsky. “The FEI schol­ar­ship is also a val­i­da­tion of my abil­i­ties. I know that I can com­pete with peo­ple who were born in the U.S. I am so grate­ful for this honor.”

Recipient Jennifer Sullivan, a stu­dent at Santa Clara University with a 3.9 GPA in her account­ing major, is accus­tomed to over­com­ing obsta­cles. Born with arthro­gry­po­sis, a con­gen­i­tal dis­or­der affect­ing the joints, she has been in a wheel­chair all of her life. She has mas­tered uti­liz­ing a com­puter with lim­ited
arm and hand mobil­ity. Since mid­dle school, Jennifer remem­bers work­ing late into the night to com­plete her assignments.

“The FEI schol­ar­ship is very sig­nif­i­cant to me because it allows me stay in school an addi­tional term to take entre­pre­neur­ship classes,” said Sullivan. “I have been think­ing about start­ing my own busi­ness, so these classes will be very useful.”

Eugene Shenkar, recip­i­ent from UC Berkeley, notes that the FEI schol­ar­ship will help him build out his edu­ca­tional back­ground by tak­ing more account­ing classes. “In addi­tion to help­ing me finan­cially, the schol­ar­ship affords me the oppor­tu­nity to net­work with FEI Silicon Valley mem­bers and ben­e­fit from
their wis­dom and advice,” said Shenkar. His advice for his next year’s appli­cants: “Have a big goal in mind and work hard to achieve it.”

The win­ners of the FEI Silicon Valley Chapter 2009 Scholarships include:

• Stephen Tsang, California State University, East Bay
• Michael Gibler, Santa Clara University
• Jordann Hallstrom, Santa Clara University
• Jennifer Sullivan, Santa Clara University
• Jeff Sloan, San Jose State University
• Manija Ansari, San Jose State University
• Maria Pyatigorsky, San Jose State University
• Danielle Bortoli, UC Berkeley
• Sharon Li, UC Berkeley
• Jacqueline Lee, UC Berkeley
• Ashley Carrick, UC Berkeley
• Eugene Shenkar, UC Berkeley

During the 2008–2009 aca­d­e­mic year, stu­dents who were enrolled as juniors or con­tin­u­ing seniors with account­ing or finance majors at San Jose State University, UC Berkeley, Santa Clara University and California State University East Bay were eli­gi­ble to receive the schol­ar­ships. For more than 10 years, FEI’s Silicon Valley Chapter has awarded as many as 12 schol­ar­ships annu­ally to local col­lege stu­dents at these four uni­ver­si­ties. The major­ity of funds for the schol­ar­ships are raised through mem­ber dona­tions and the FEI Scholarship Fund Golf Tournament, held annu­ally at the Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club.

The process for select­ing schol­ar­ship win­ners included reviews of appli­cants’ resumes, cover let­ters and other mate­ri­als by edu­ca­tors and FEI Silicon Valley Chapter mem­bers on the schol­ar­ship com­mit­tee, fol­lowed by inter­views with stu­dents. Committee mem­bers eval­u­ated the aca­d­e­mic records of stu­dents as well as their extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties, work/internship expe­ri­ences, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion and lead­er­ship skills to deter­mine the winners.

Students who are inter­ested in apply­ing for schol­ar­ships from FEI’s Silicon Valley Chapter dur­ing the 2009–2010 aca­d­e­mic year should con­tact their university’s schol­ar­ship office.

About FEI’s Silicon Valley Chapter

Financial Executives International — Silicon Valley Chapter is the pre­em­i­nent pro­fes­sional asso­ci­a­tion for senior finance exec­u­tives in Silicon Valley. With over 500 mem­bers, the Silicon Valley Chapter attracts promi­nent local and national speak­ers at its monthly din­ner meet­ings, which pro­vide net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for chap­ter mem­bers and spon­sors. Chapter mem­bers also have the oppor­tu­nity to par­tic­i­pate in the FEI national career ser­vices job board and monthly lunch meet­ings, and local high-quality con­tin­u­ing pro­fes­sional edu­ca­tion (CPE) sem­i­nars. The chap­ter offers mix­ers with local busi­ness and pro­fes­sional asso­ciates and a locally pub­lished chap­ter newslet­ter. Visit www.feisv.org for more information.

CONTACT: Cynthia Harris of PR Strategy Group, mobile, +1–650-520-8343,
charris@prstrategygroup.com, for FEI Silicon Valley