Baruch College’s Office of Student Life announced on Oct. 13 that the National Association of Black Accountants was named the student organization of the month for September.

NABA is a professional development organization, seeking to increase the number of minority students in corporate America. It aims to foster students into becoming leaders and social agents of change. It serves all students, not just accounting majors, but also other business fields such as finance, economics and marketing.

Founded in 1969, NABA celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. At the time of the organization’s founding, less than 2% of certified public accountants were black. Consequently, the nine founding members created NABA to raise that number.

NABA now holds corporate events, sponsored by 50 corporate sponsors such as Goldman Sachs, IBM, Google and the big four accounting firms. Members also attend social events, where they can network with one another and learn about community service events.

Baruch NABA Chapter President Kaiyell Pettie is a senior majoring in finance. He believes NABA’s mission is what makes the organization so unique.

“There aren’t many other spaces for our diverse students to feel at home, have a family away from home and develop professionally at the same time,” Pettie said.

He also noted that Baruch NABA is the largest chapter in the eastern region, requiring a lot of hard work from its team.

NABA members said they were thrilled to find out it was named the student organization of the month, feeling grateful to those who nominated it.

Members had a conference last month, bringing 32 students to acquire internships and full-time opportunities. To Pettie, the hard work put into this and other events in September shows why they deserved recognition for the month.

To win student organization of the month, each club must go through a process. All active clubs are notified when nominations open, in addition to an announcement in the Student Life newsletter.

Members of the Baruch community, including students, faculty and staff, then nominate one club using the nomination form. Each nominated club is then ranked from one to 10 according to how well they fit the criteria described in the nominations. The student organization of the month is given to the club with the highest average score.

The criteria focus on the following aspects: strong membership, regular activities or events, virtual involvement and co-sponsorships, philanthropic efforts and reliable leadership.

Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Office of Student Life Crystal Tejada discussed why NABA was picked for the month of September.

“NABA was able to meet all of the criteria listed above and their members emphasized a large focus on professional development and continued dedication from leadership to evolving the club even in a virtual space,” Tejada said.