2010 The Ralph and Shirley Shapiro Scholarship Recipient

Biography: Xiangfeng Cao was born into a business-oriented family. She grew up spending a lot of time in her mother’s grocery store. Growing up around a family business has helped Xiangfeng develop a strong interest in owning a business of her own. When she was only thirteen, she was able to work independently at the flea market, generating great sales revenue on her own. Even though she had the intelligence and skill level necessary to gain admission into a business school, which was her dream, she was not able to because her father strongly opposed the idea. After a few years, Xiangfeng realized she still had a burning desire to develop her own business. In order to understand business and economics and to figure out how it could help her in her future business career, she decided to take a few economics courses. Xiangfeng spent two years at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) and then transferred to UCLA in 2009. Presently, she is pursuing a major in Business-Economics, with a Minor in Accounting. She has striven for academic excellence and maintains almost a 4.0 GPA. Xiangfeng enthusiastically participates in community activities. She was a volunteer of the CSSA–Chinese Students and Scholar Association at SBCC. She helped organize various events of CSSA each year. Xiangfeng voluntarily tutored many of her fellow classmates at Santa Barbara City College, and continues to do so for her classmates at UCLA. She tries her best to help others. She greatly enjoys sharing her study strategies and experiences with others. She is so delighted to see their progress and accomplishments as a result of her help.

Future Plans: Xiangfeng’s current academic plan is to complete the major in Business Economics, with a Minor in Accounting. Her long-term career goal is to become a CPA. She feels accounting will offer her a steady career path in the financial world that could lead to other related fields such as investment banking or financial analysis. Xiangfeng will also continue to try to find business opportunities and wishes to create her own business some day.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: I am very much honored to be selected as the recipient of The Ralph and Shirley Shapiro Scholarship this year. The scholarship will greatly help me continue my academic education. It will help to pay part of my tuition and to purchase accounting and economics books, as well as supplies, which I was unable to pay for previously due to my financial burden. I love to read different books related to economics, accounting, and business. Reading more professional books will give me a great opportunity to understand different aspects of accounting and help me to learn the frontiers of economics and business. The scholarship also serves as an exciting challenge for me to maintain and improve my level of achievement before graduation. Overall, the Ralph and Shirley Shapiro Scholarship can help me to further my professional education and career goals that I have set for myself. It will, in turn, help me to start a true career in a field related to business, economics, and accounting.