Kent State Business College Gets $3.1M Gift

KENT, OHIO — Kent State University’s College of Business Administration has received a $3.1 million gift from the estate of Kent State alumnus Joseph Stevens.

The Stevens Family Scholarship  was established by Joseph and Frances Stevens. Mr. Stevens earned a degree in accounting from Kent State in 1941.

The estate gift will provide more than $155,000 annually for distribution to juniors and seniors with a 3.0 grade point average or higher who are majoring in a program in the College of Business Administration and demonstrate financial need.

Mr. Stevens was born in Ohio and brought up in New York City. He worked  for two of the nation’s largest accounting firms as an accountant and auditor. He later became treasurer and vice president of two educational publishing houses before retiring as vice president of Xerox Corp. He served as an officer in several community service organizations, business and professional clubs during his career and was twice chosen as president of the National Association of Accountants.

“With this scholarship endowment, which was our largest gift of fiscal 2017, Joseph Stevens was able to give back to the college that gave him the tools to be a successful professional,” said Stephen Sokany, Kent State’s vice president for institutional advancement, in a statement. “But the impact goes much deeper than that. His gift is empowering students to receive that same high-quality education, while also illustrating the importance of philanthropy to those who benefit from his scholarship.”

Kent State’s College of Business Administration is among the fewer than 1% of business schools worldwide to obtain dual Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accreditation in both business and accounting. The business administration program is ranked among the top 100 public business undergraduate programs in the U.S. in the recent 2018 U.S. News & World Report ranking and 45th among the top undergraduate business schools in the U.S. in 2016 by Bloomberg Businessweek.

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