State Farm Foundation Supports NSU Programs

BROKEN ARROW - Continuing their commitment to educating the future business leaders of Oklahoma, State Farm will donate $30,000 to Northeastern State University to support the Master of Science in Accounting and Financial Analysis (MAFA) program at a special reception on Monday, Jan. 22, at 4:30 p.m. in Visitor Center Gallery in Building A at the NSU Broken Arrow campus.

Since 2001, State Farm has given nearly $165,000 through the NSU Foundation to benefit programs at NSU. Their generous donations have helped complete two long-distance learning classrooms at NSUBA, implement a financial-planning program, and develop curriculum for insurance courses at NSUBA.

"Northeastern State University is honored to continue our partnership with State Farm," said NSU President Dr. Larry Williams. "State Farm's support has been an invaluable resource in creating comprehensive programs for our students."

Northeastern State University developed and implemented MAFA on the Broken Arrow campus in 2001. Through the support of State Farm, the program has expanded to offer several accounting and financial designation. NSUBA Associate Professor of Finance Dr. Kirby Cundiff, the first recipient of the Certified Financial Analyst designation through the MAFA program at NSU, will also be honored at the reception.

"We're excited to be able to continue our partnership with Northeastern," said Rendi Black, State Farm Vice President of Agency. "State Farm has a long standing commitment to education. We look forward to outstanding results from NSU's academic offerings, which serve the public by enhancing professionalism in the financial services industry. Ultimately, these programs will positively impact our work force which will better equip them to meet the growing financial needs of our current and future customers."

The latest donation will sponsor NSU's Master of Accounting and Financial Analysis Program at the Broken Arrow campus. The MAFA program was originally created to assist accounting students in earning the 150-credit hours required by the Oklahoma Accountancy Board to take the Certified Public Accountant Exam.

"The exam board has moved from requiring a bachelor's degree to requiring 150 hours of coursework to be eligible to take the CPA exam," said NSU College of Business and Technology Dean Dr. John Schleede. "The MAFA program assists our students in preparing for the exam, while also providing an opportunity for our finance students to get up to speed to take the exam."

In addition to preparing students for the CPA exam, the MAFA program also has career tracks to prepare students for the Certified Financial Planner, Certified Management Accountant, and Chartered Financial Analyst designations.

"With the sponsorship of State Farm, Northeastern has recently been able to implement the Chartered Financial Analyst designation," said Schleede. "As a result, NSU is the only institution of higher education in Oklahoma to prepare students for all four designations at one location."

The CFA charter is a globally recognized credential for investment analysis and management. The CFA program sets a globally recognized standard for measuring the competence and integrity of financial analysts, portfolio managers, and investment advisers. Currently, more than 76,000 investment professionals in 124 nations and territories hold the CFA charter.

Recipients of the CFA charter have successfully completed a graduate-level, self-study curriculum, and a series of three intensive examinations taken sequentially over at least two years. The CFA Institute recommends that candidates prepare a minimum of 250 hours per exam, with substantially more time recommended for individual circumstances. The three, six-hour exams cover ethical and professional standards, securities analysis and valuation, financial statement analysis, quantitative methods, economics, corporate finance, portfolio management, and performance measurement.

NSU will partner with the CFA Institute, an international organization with a mission to lead the investment profession by setting the highest standards of ethics, education and professional excellence. The partnership required NSU to offer 70 percent of the CFA material built into the degree program.

"The support for the program modifications will have a lasting effect on NSU and the professional accounting and finance communities in northeastern Oklahoma," said Schleede. "No other university in this region is providing this level of service and few communities, even considerably larger ones, have this level of financial education available in one location."