Last year, Bronwyn Salo, a Kent State graduate accounting student and current Beta Alpha Psi Kent State chapter president, and three of her colleagues took on a challenge. The business fraternity decided to enter a nationwide diversity competition.

After traveling to Chicago for the national Beta Psi meeting Aug. 4, the Kent State chapter became one of four chapters in the United States to win the Ernst and Young Diversity Award.

“It was a surprise to win,” Salo said.

To be considered for the prize, the four student ambassadors wrote two abstracts.

“We had to state the ways to improve diversity in our chapter,” Salo said.

Salo said the summary of the statement was “diversity is about trying to relate to someone different than you and stepping out of your comfort zone.”

The second abstract required them to state how they planned to incorporate and apply diversity to the chapter.

They may have executed that second abstract quite recently. Last week, the Kent State chapter created a new diversity officer position.

In addition to the recognition, the chapter received a plaque and $2,000 for their winning views.

Beta Alpha Psi decided to pour the money back into the initial cause.

“We decided that we got all this money for diversity, we would use that money for diversity,” Salo said.

The chapter donated $500 to the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants, which recruits minority high school students for accounting programs. Richard Brown, the Kent State accounting department chair, thought highly of the chapter’s achievement.

“It’s a wonderful surprise. I am very proud of it,” he said.

Despite his pride, Brown acknowledged the department’s ironic lack of a more diverse student demographic. There was “not enough” Brown said.

Still, he remained hopeful.

“We’re working at it,” he said. “We have a ways to go, but this is a step in the right direction.”

Salo, who will work for Ernst and Young after graduating this summer, echoed Brown’s sentiment.

“I just hope more students will be more accepting of people that are different than them.”

Contact business administration and ROTC reporter Doveana Petty at [email protected].