Student Center for the Public Trust

The StudentCPT program is pleased to welcome its two newest chapters, both at highly-recognizable universities.

On October 1, 2013, an inaugural chapter kick-off meeting was held at The Ohio State University. In addition to the student attendees, several faculty members were on hand to express their interest and support. The guest speaker for the meeting was Aaron Beam, founding CFO of HealthSouth. Beam, who was involved in the $2.7 billion HealthSouth accounting fraud scandal, spoke to students candidly about how he failed to respond ethically to high pressures from the corporate world and internal leadership. He did not try to excuse his behavior, rather he spoke on his ability [at that time] to justify his bad decision by convincing himself, “just this one time.”

As his story unfolded, he revealed that once you start down the wrong path, it is almost impossible to correct the course. Beam was passionate in his message to students, driving his plea; “please learn from my mistakes.”

“We are about business ethics,” served as the theme for the opening of the message delivered to students at the StudentCPT chapter launch at Florida State University on Thursday, November 21.  

The meeting was held in conjunction with the FSU Delta Sigma Pi meeting, and featured CPT President Alfonzo Alexander as the guest speaker. The FSU chapter got off to a great start and is planning its second event, featuring Weston Smith in February 2014.

Two students representing both schools participated in the 2013 Student Leadership Conference; including Brittany Bird, who now serves as president of the FSU chapter.