The University of Central Arkansas Advancement Division announces a $100,000 gift commitment from Bell & Company to establish a scholarship for graduate students pursuing a master’s degree in accounting.
Richard Bell
The Stephens Bell Endowed Scholarship will provide current support and create an endowment to benefit future students in years to come. The fund will be the first to specifically target students pursuing graduate studies in the field of accounting.
“We are proud to be a part of helping UCA students fulfill their dreams of a higher education. Seeing my sister and I graduate college was one of my father’s lifetime goals, and in many ways, this endowment is our way of passing that goal on to future UCA students. It allows us to give back to public education, help others reach a higher education, and to live their dreams as we are,” said Richard Bell, president and CEO of Bell & Company.
Bell & Company is a regional certified public accounting and business advisory firm with offices in both Conway and North Little Rock. Founded in 1982, Bell & Company provides a wide range of accounting, auditing, financial planning and other services to a variety of clients with a focus on small businesses, which they describe as “the core of [their] firm.”
The Master of Accountancy (MAcc) program at UCA provides advanced, in-depth training in accounting, business, and leadership for those individuals engaged in or seeking professional careers in accounting. It helps to provide its students with the skills necessary to be successful in a rapidly changing business environment. The program is comprehensive and develops students’ conceptual and technical accounting competence, communication skills, research and analytical abilities, and leadership skills.
The very generous gift of Bell & Company will help ensure the continued success of the MAcc program and its students for years to come.
Bell said, “As a child growing up in the community of Oak Grove, a college education often seemed unobtainable; however, my father’s commitment to my sister and I made our higher education possible and allowed us to achieve our goal of owning our own firm, Bell and Company, for over 30 years. With over 15 CPA’s on staff and 35 total firm employees, offices in North Little Rock, and now Conway, we are a living testament of what can be achieved through higher education.”
