Accounting Career Awareness Program Receives $30,400 Grant from Bill and Melinda Gates

SEATTLE -- The Accounting Career Awareness Program (ACAP) received a $30,400 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Boh Dickey, ACAP chairman of the board, announced today. The funds will be used to underwrite the costs of a week-long residency designed to introduce minority students to careers in accounting, finance, economics, and management.

Each summer 70 qualified high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors from the Seattle area attend this all-expenses-paid, live-in residency at the University of Washington School of Business. The program features a carefully tailored curriculum involving University of Washington faculty and guest lecturers from industry and government. Sessions on computer skills, math and communications are complemented by exercises in teambuilding, presentations on leadership and ethics, and field trips to local businesses.

"Many ACAP graduates tell us their decision to major in business and pursue a business career came as a result of their one-week residency," Dickey said. "It is amazing to see a student's world opened up to new and exciting options for their future. We are honored the Gates have joined us in providing minority students with access to information on business careers."

Since its inception in 1982, ACAP has introduced more than 785 minority students to the benefits of a college education and the opportunities available through a career in business. Students finishing the course also have a chance to intern at one of the sponsoring corporations, including SAFECO, Boeing, Weyerhaeuser and Nordstrom as well as many major accounting firms.

Students interested in an application or more information, should contact Melvin Minnis at ACAP, P.O. Box 22066 Seattle, WA 98122-0066.

The Accounting Career Awareness Program is a 501 (C)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing the serious under-representation of minorities in the accounting and related business professions. ACAP, which has been operating in Seattle and the greater Puget Sound area since 1982, recruits qualified African-American, Hispanic, Asian and American Indian high school students. ACAP has four main goals: To encourage minority students to acquire the educational background they need to major in business at a college or university; to introduce students to minority role models so students can learn about opportunities in business professions and prepare for those opportunities; to provide internships at businesses around the Puget Sound that will help ACAP students gain meaningful job experiences; and to involve area businesses, career guidance counselors and parents in ACAP through contributions and volunteer time.