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When she came from Cuba to the United States in 2008, Maidelys Ruiz knew English mainly from books. Coming to Miami marked the first plane ride for Ruiz, who emigrated with her parents and younger sister.<\/p>\nWhen she came from Cuba to the United States in 2008, Maidelys Ruiz knew English mainly from books. Coming to Miami marked the first plane ride for Ruiz, who emigrated with her parents and younger sister.<\/p>\n
Six years later, Ruiz not only graduated summa cum laude from the School of Accounting, but also won a prestigious $10,000 scholarship from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), a nonprofit established by Congress to oversee public company audits.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a blessing, truly a blessing,\u201d said Ruiz. She plans to attend FIU to earn her Master\u2019s of Accounting, and already has a deferred job offer from PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she interned.<\/p>\n
Still, while her accomplishments are impressive, it\u2019s her motivation that is most inspiring. Her dad, who never had a chance to complete his own education, was jailed in Cuba for political views. \u201cHe said, \u2018I\u2019m taking you to this country because it is a great country. The only thing I ask is for you to have a future \u2013 go to school and study.\u2019 \u201d Ruiz said.<\/p>\n
She chose accounting because she remembers being fascinated as a child by the spread sheets used by two aunts in Cuba, who were themselves accountants. But what\u2019s more, it\u2019s a fascination with the economic language of a functioning democracy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to do something that gives me a broader view of what is means to be in a capital market,\u201d she said. \u201cTo me, accounting is like learning another language.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becoming fluent in English was itself an uphill climb. In Miami, she couldn\u2019t understand people\u2019s speech \u2013 or even TV. Little by little, she made herself think in English rather than Spanish. She put more time into studying, took more class notes, and began reviewing with her peers \u2013 after reviewing on her own.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Maidelys_Ruiz_PCAOB_Scholarship.jpg.jpg\")
Ruiz\u2019s perseverance and commitment was noticed by her professors and by Ruth Ann McEwen, director of the School of Accounting.<\/p>\n
Ruiz, McEwen said, stands out for her \u201cdetermination and commitment, and being willing to put forth whatever effort was required to do an excellent job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz, who has been an active Beta Alpha member since coming to FIU, got her internship through that organization. She also volunteers helping do income taxes and working with foster kids.<\/p>\n
Still, her focus remains on her studies, and the work ahead. \u201cWhen I came to this country, I wanted to do something with myself \u2013 and show I could really do it. If my parents say \u2018do your best,\u2019 I put in my all, for my future as a professional, a person, a role model and for my parents.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When she came from Cuba to the United States in 2008, Maidelys Ruiz knew English mainly from books. Coming to Miami marked the first plane ride for Ruiz, who emigrated with her parents and younger sister. Six years later, Ruiz not only graduated summa cum laude from the School of Accounting, but also won a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":25694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3812,3811,3810,2151,3809,2339,2386,2388,2448],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25692"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25695,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25692\/revisions\/25695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}