Ed Mendlowitz, an emeritus partner at Top 100 Firm Withum and widely respected figure in the accounting profession, has established the Mendlowitz Family Scholarship at Baruch College.
Both Mendlowitz and his father, also a CPA, attended the CUNY school.
According to Mendlowitz, the idea for the scholarship came to him while he was speaking to a class in March about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He recalled that King had been the commencement speaker at his graduation from Baruch just two months before he gave his iconic “I Have a Dream Speech” — and with the 60th anniversary of both the graduation and the speech approaching, Mendlowitz was spurred to consider how he might honor both.
Deciding to establish a scholarship, he called Baruch and pledged $100,000 in scholarship funds for the Zicklin School of Business. Baruch and the school pledged to match 25% of his donation.
He had originally considered including specific parameters and conditions for the scholarship, but when he asked his wife about what they might be, she said, “If you’re going to do good, just do good.”
In that spirit, there are no conditions on the Mendlowitz Family Scholarship.
“What you have been given, give back,” advised Mendlowitz, who is also a columnist for Accounting Today and a frequent member of our Top 100 Most Influential People list. He encourages young people to give back in any way they can by participating in volunteer programs or speaking to high school students from their own communities.
“There are more ways to give back than donating money,” he said. “Teaching, mentoring and service are valuable to all communities, especially in our industry.”
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