Educated, Inspired and Motivated, COPE CPA Graduates Ready to Make Their Mark in the Business World

(By: Sandy Eller)

It was a milestone moment for the 50 students of the COPE CPA accounting program, as they gathered in Brooklyn to celebrate their graduations, taking advantage of an opportunity to reflect on their academic accomplishments as they take the next step towards a future filled with promise.

COPE, a division of Agudath Israel of America’s Community Services, has been offering its highly regarded CPA track accounting program for the past 17 years. Hundreds of students have enrolled in the program since that time, with its men’s and women’s cohorts receiving a rigorous education in an uncompromising environment. With their successes in the fields of business and accounting built on the foundational skills acquired in the nearly two year long program, graduates have credited COPE and its highly sought after instructors for providing them with comprehensive knowledge and support in one of today’s fastest growing and well-paying careers. COPE has also been offering its ever popular short-term Junior Accounting program for the past 30 years, which besides having prepared thousands of students for successful careers, has inspired many to aim even higher and continue on in the CPA-track program.

Addressing graduates at both the women’s graduation on December 11th and the men’s graduation on December 12th, COPE Education Services director Rabbi Daniel Baumann praised students for their unity despite coming from very diverse backgrounds particularly in the men’s program, where this year’s graduates included a significant number of students hailing from several different Chasidic communities. Rabbi Baumann also emphasized COPE’s focus on providing culturally sensitive educational opportunities, setting students on a lucrative career path without exposing them to problematic influences.

“The hallmark of our program is on attaining marketable skills and maintaining the focus on the ultimate goal of earning a parnasa to help support a life of avodas Hashem,” said Rabbi Baumann.

Graduates also heard words of encouragement from Agudath Israel of America executive vice president Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, COPE Education Services assistant director Dr. Sholom Schochet and renowned lecturer Rabbi Paysach Krohn, with the men’s commencement also including remarks from Agudath Israel of America Board of Trustees member Leon Goldenberg.

Representing the women’s cohort and its newly streamlined 18 month program was Matty Kleinberg, senior bookkeeper at Bernath & Rosenberg CPAs & Wealth Advisors, and Rivka Berliner, nee Goldstein, an accountant at LTC Consulting Services. Ms. Berliner praised COPE for its dynamic and knowledgeable professors and emphasized the importance of gratitude, thanking the program’s professors for serving as role models even as they taught the many principles of accounting.

“The exceptional education we received in a variety of subjects, including taxes, economics, business management, auditing and much more has given us the knowledge and information we need to confidently and successfully go on to the next step, pursuing a CPA license,” said Mrs. Berliner. “Each professor, with their unique style of teaching, has expertly and patiently taught us the valuable tools we need to grow successfully in our careers.”

Three members of the men’s program, Shlomo Yitzchok Wolcowitz, an accountant with Sander and Wolcowitz CPA P.A., Levi Rosenfeld, an accountant at Cedar Advance LLC, and Zvi Schwadel, controller at Bayrock Insurance Agency, spoke at the graduation. Mr. Schwadel noted that he was confident that he and his fellow graduates would make their mark in the world of accounting because of the CPA program’s strong curriculum and the values imparted by its staff.

“Aside from the exceptional academic education we received from our professors, we have, and still have, professors and faculty who really care, who are here to help us every step of the way,” observed Mr. Schwadel. “I hope that we, as graduates, can internalize this message that our professors taught us by example and apply this to whatever field of work that we enter.”