Congratulations to Cassandra Siwy, a graduate finance student who recently received a scholarship from Buffalo Niagara Business Ethics Association. Siwy was presented with a check for $500 by representatives from BNBEA James M. Bedard, Director and Alison Romanowski, Vice President & Treasurer on November 17, 2021. Also in attendance were Dr. Mark Frascatore, dean of the College of Business Administration, and Dr. Hai Ta, assistant professor of accounting and faculty coordinator for the BNBEA project.
Niagara University is a partner organization with the BNBEA. Each year, companies from the Buffalo/Niagara region are nominated for the Crystal Award by their peers in the business community. The nominees that wish to be considered for the award are invited to submit in depth entries that describe their organizations on several different dimensions.
This was the second time that Siwy has served as the project manager in this process. She also served as project manager in 2020. As manager, she coordinated the students and supervised the evaluation process. This included forming category committees and assigning students to complete initial reviews, tracking completed work and keeping the project moving on schedule, communicating and coordinating with BNBEA board representatives and providing guidance to students and category committees as needed.
Students participated in judging the entries submitted by companies that are nominated for the award, and then select 3 finalists for each award category. Students are provided with an opportunity to get an “inside” look at companies and the importance they place on acting ethically and the value they place on being perceived as an ethical organization. They are able to see how different organizations put their ethical values into action and to apply their knowledge of ethics to work by evaluating the nominees.
Siwy has served in several leadership roles while at Niagara, including as president of Beta Alpha Psi honor society. She explained, “This amazing opportunity to work directly with the BNBEA representatives, gave me a chance to build upon my leadership, organizational and communication skills while also learning something new. Being a graduate student, I now have more educational and professional experience and was able to better understand the inner workings of the applicants' companies and truly appreciate the hard work that goes into running a business. To see the differences in how these companies apply their ethical values is truly a learning experience for me as it teaches me how I can be ethical within my organizations in the future.”
Siwy is currently pursuing her CPA while working as a graduate assistant in the Graduate Studies office on campus. She plans on graduating in May 2022 with an MS in Finance and will begin her full time career as an Auditor at Deloitte in their Buffalo office in fall 2022.
Siwy expressed her gratitude for this hands on learning experience, “I am so thankful to have been able to be the project manager again and appreciate the support that was provided to me not only from the BNBEA representatives but Professor Agnello and Professor Ta as well. Niagara has provided me with endless opportunities to grow personally and professionally and I hope to one day be able to provide the same support to younger students as an Alumni of this incredible university.”