Keiser University Fort Myers student Fairene Rodriguez was awarded the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA) Foundation’s yearly scholarship in early November for her hard work and dedication in the Master of Accountancy degree program. Rodriguez is projected to finish her degree program before the end of this year and said that the journey to graduation was not always easy.

Rodriguez’s family came to the United States from Venezuela. English was not her first language, and this sometimes made it difficult to understand the lessons in class. So, she dedicated extra time to re-reading and absorbing the information from lectures. Rodriguez also said she tried two different universities before Keiser to achieve her master’s degree but found that the programs did not meet her academic needs.

Rodriguez works a fulltime job in accounting and couldn’t take time off to attend morning classes at different universities. She said that when she found Keiser University, the counselor who first introduced her to the accounting program presented her with a multitude of options that were much more accepting of her busy schedule.

Rodriguez already completed her bachelor’s degree in economics from a different university but decided for her master’s that she wanted to get into accounting.

“There are a lot of similarities,” she said, “and I found that I love numbers in business, so I wanted to try [accounting].”

Even though she currently works in accounting, and has for about five years now, Rodriguez said she’s aiming to move to a big city in Florida and become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). She thanks her education with Keiser University for assisting her in coming closer to this goal.

“If it wasn’t for continuing my education with Keiser University, I don’t think I would be able to get the kind of job that I am hoping for,” Rodriguez said.

The FICPA Foundation Scholarship that Rodriguez received was only awarded to about 70 accounting students in the state of Florida, so the achievement is one that Rodriguez is honored to accept. The scholarship assists future accountants and CPA’s by providing awards between $1,000 – $5,000 to go towards completing degree programs.

Rodriguez said she is looking forward to using her lessons from Keiser University in her future accounting career. “Accounting is the language of business. You provide information for people to make decisions. The more you know, the more knowledge you have, the better of an asset you become.”

Keiser University is a private, independent, non-profit university serving nearly 20,000 students at 21 Florida campuses, online, and two international sites. Co-founded in 1977 by Chancellor Arthur Keiser, Ph.D., and Evelyn Keiser, Keiser University currently offers more than 100 degrees from associates to the doctoral level. Keiser University is a member of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and was ranked No. 11 in the U.S. in Social Mobility by U.S. News and World Reports in 2021.