2008 The Ralph and Shirley Shapiro Scholarship Recipient

Biography: Charles Cheng is currently in his fourth year at UCLA. He is majoring in Business Economics, along with a minor in Accounting. Charles is an international student from Hong Kong. He went to Santa Monica College and then transferred to UCLA. He has done enough community services to qualify the President award since his arrival in the United States. This is a door open for him to contact more people, to serve the community and to know more about the culture. He really enjoys being a Bruin. He has worked in BearWear and tried to show the Bruin’s energy to all the customers ranging from SoCal to everywhere around the world. The reason why he chose Economics major is that Charles was inspired by his parents’ view and their works in banking, finance and management. This exposed him to the intriguing business world and helped develop his personal interest to this area. This summer, he joined Deloitte as a summer audit intern to gain more practical experience.

Future Plans: After working in Deloitte, Charles plans on sitting for the CPA exam and would like to work in the public accounting or banking industries. In distant future, he would like to earn an MBA and the master of public policy in the United States. This will further his career and polish him to be more all-rounded in order to be successful in the exciting business world. In the distant future, he would like to establish his own companies in poor countries and hope this can help the people to get out from the poverty.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: I am very fortunate to be the recipient of The Ralph and Shirley Shapiro Scholarship. It reduces my financial burden and gives me more time to prepare my schoolwork. Besides, this scholarship is a very good award to confirm my accomplishment. It motivates me a lot to keep on pursuing my dream as well as working harder in my future life. UCLA gives students good foundation in accounting and economics. I hope I can make full use of my knowledge and my experience to help others understand more about the financial industry. In my last year in UCLA, I will devote myself to make the campus different and to achieve a higher academic goal.