Jackson native Kayla Booker recently received a $10,000 Minority Accounting Doctoral Scholarship from the KPMG Foundation. The Foundation awards African-American, Hispanic American and Native American students with the scholarships in an effort to increase minority students and professors in the business world. The KPMG Foundation renews the scholarship every year for five years.

"People who go into Ph.D. programs tend to stop anything else they are doing. It's a financial burden," Booker said.

The KPMG Foundation Minority Accounting Doctoral Scholarship program is part of the Ph.D. Project, a separate organization aimed towards increasing minority scholars and recruiting them into doctoral programs in all business disciplines. Booker started attending Ph.D. Project meetings in November of 2009. The Ph.D. Project holds meetings in conjunction with American Accounting Association meetings, which provides students in the Ph.D. Project an opportunity to learn from the top educators in accounting.

"They give us tips; how to get through the program, how to research and how to make good research better," Booker said. "We (in the Ph.D. Project) get a lot of opportunities that other students may never get to have."

Booker graduated from Jackson State University with a bachelor of business administration; she focused most of her studies on accounting. She is now a Jackson State doctoral student.

"My dad is an accountant, he taught accounting, and I followed in his footsteps," Booker said.

Booker is working on her dissertation proposal. After attaining her doctoral degree she hopes to teach accounting classes and focus on experimental research.