Hofstra Alumna Abigail Singley of North Bethesda Honored for Perfect GPA

2015 Dec 14

Hofstra 2015 graduate Abigail Singley of North Bethesda, MD, is a recipient of the Albert I. DaSilva Memorial Endowed Scholarship for achieving a 4.0 G.P.A. while she earned a degree in accounting. The scholarship may be used toward her graduate studies or other academic pursuits.

The late Mr. Albert DaSilva was a noted entertainment lawyer. His wife, Zenia DaSilva, was a professor of Romance Languages and Literature at Hofstra. She has the distinction of being Hofstra's longest-serving faculty member. Though now retired, she taught at Hofstra for 54 years.

On December 8, Dr. DaSilva, Hofstra President Stuart Rabinowitz, and Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Gail Simmons, met with Singley. Dr. DaSilva talked to her about her and her husband's shared commitment to education, the humanities and to helping young people achieve their professional and academic goals. "He was a champion of the liberal arts and believed that young people ought to experience a textured education that instills an appreciation of both the arts and sciences," Dr. DaSilva said.

Hofstra's dual-degree BBA/MS accounting program, in which Singley is enrolled, allows students to complete the 150 credit hours required for CPA licensure and both undergraduate and graduate studies in five years. As an undergraduate, Singley served as vice president for Beta Alpha Psi, the honor organization for accounting, finance and information systems students. She was a peer tutor for various business courses and has been a teaching assistant in Department of Accounting, Taxation and Legal Studies in Business. For a semester she worked with the Internal Revenue Service's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program, helping low- to moderate-income Long Island residents and international students at Hofstra prepare their tax returns.

During the summer of 2015 Singley interned with a data analytics group at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). She is currently studying for and taking the CPA exams while completing the MS in Taxation. In fact, also on December 8, she found out that she passed the first of these exams. She will graduate in May from Hofstra and has already accepted a full-time job offer with PwC's advisory practice.