Helping W. P. Carey students get the whole university experience
Stacey and Scott Sprinkle were classmates at the W. P. Carey School of Business, both graduating in 1988 with B.S. degrees in accountancy. Now residents of Denver, they’ve used the skills they developed at W. P. Carey to build challenging, successful careers. Scott is co-founder and partner in Sprinkle & Associates LLC, bringing more than 25 years’ experience in wealth management to his clients. Stacey is vice president for federal tax policy at Verizon Communications.
The couple is passionate about the value of higher education, and they believe that motivated students should have the same opportunity to acquire the tools to succeed. But paying the tab for a university degree has gotten harder since the Sprinkles graduated — and three years ago the couple decided to do something about it.
College expenses today are high, but for many students, paying the bills back in the 1980s wasn’t all that easy, either. Stacey was one of them. She had to work, shouldering a full load of classes and carving out 20 to 25 hours per week at the ASU Gammage box office on Arizona State University’s Tempe campus.
Today, public policy and declining government financing for public higher education puts increasing pressure on students and their families, the Sprinkles point out. About 80 percent of W. P. Carey students are dividing their attention between classes and part- or full-time jobs. Remembering their personal experiences, the Sprinkles decided to take action. In 2011, they established the Sprinkle Family Scholarship.
The scholarship is awarded to accounting students based on merit and financial need. It was created with people like Stacey in mind: students who want to squeeze every ounce of benefit out of their time at the W. P. Carey School of Business. That richly challenging academic experience is something the Sprinkles feel is essential — not just to improve individual lives, but, over time, to the continued economic competiveness of the nation.
Because Stacey focuses on federal tax policy in her job at Verizon, she spends a lot of time envisioning where the government should be spending money. And for Stacey, the answer is almost always education.
“Education is the biggest equalizer,” says Stacey over the phone from Washington D.C. where she spends a lot of her working time. “It’s a way to provide an opportunity for people to better themselves and establish a great life for their family.”
“Our time at ASU helped to establish the foundation for our future success.”
The Sprinkles themselves are proof. “As time passes,” says Scott over the phone from his office in Colorado, “you grow to realize ASU provided you with a skill set that allowed you to work hard and adapt to changing environments. Our time at ASU helped to establish the foundation for our future success.”
The first recipient of the scholarship was a veteran of the U. S. Marine Corps. He was in the officer training program, and he had a family. Because of the resources offered by the Sprinkle Family Scholarship, he was able to pursue his education and spend more time with his family. The scholarship didn’t cover everything, but the Sprinkles could see that he was driven so they helped fill some financial gaps. For Stacey, this student’s experience hit home; her father was a Marine and he was the first person in his family to graduate from college.
“It goes beyond education,” says Scott Sprinkle. “ASU changed both of our lives. College is a much bigger thing than just getting a ‘book education.’ That’s part of this whole scholarship: We want other people who may not be able to experience what we experienced at ASU to have the ability to do that without constantly worrying about finances.”
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