The newly created Scott and Colleen Sport Endowed Accounting Scholarship will help rural students become successful.

Applicants must have passed Principals of Accounting I to be eligible and have a 2.5 grade point average, and preference will be given first to students from Crenshaw County, then to applicants from Barbour, Butler, Coffee, Covington, Dale or Pike counties. If no applicants are from those areas, then preference will be given to a first-generation college student from any county.

Scott Sport is a 1986 graduate of the Sorrell College of Business, having completed his undergraduate degree in accounting. He went on to earn an MBA from Auburn University. He is a partner in accounting firm Ernst & Young’s Strategy and Transactions practice with more than 35 years of public accounting, corporate development and private manufacturing and distribution experience.

He currently serves as EY’s Global Leader for Transactions & Corporate Finance.

A native of Luverne, Sport’s father, Joe Rex, was a TROY alumnus and long-time educator in Crenshaw County, eventually serving as superintendent there. His two sisters became teachers as well.

“As I became successful, I set up the Joe Rex and Barbara Sport Scholarship at TROY to both honor my parents for all they did for me and to help others from Crenshaw and surrounding rural communities pursue their own education at TROY,” Sport said.  “I am very pleased that we have been able to support a number of students in their educational pursuit.”

Similar to his initial scholarship, he hopes to provide the same help specifically to Accounting students at TROY, in turn empowering those students to “pay it forward” to future generations of TROY students.

“While at TROY, I majored in Accounting. In doing so, I found that it provided a solid foundation for business acumen and underlying financial skills that enabled my career progression . . . When I look back at the key ingredients to my success and advice I would pass on to others in Accounting, I would say: (i) always be learning, (ii) take some chances and (iii) reinvent yourself as new opportunities arise,” Sport said. “These, coupled with hard work and some good fortune, have allowed me to have a rewarding career.”

JR Eason, Director of Development at TROY, said Sport’s support is invaluable to the growth within the Carr School.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Scott to establish his second scholarship endowment. We cannot thank him and his family enough for their continued investment in making college more affordable for TROY’s students,” Eason said. “The scholarship will be instrumental in recruiting accounting students, especially from this region of Alabama, and will be impactful for the Carr School of Accountancy for many years to come.”

In the end, Sport said he’d found a deeper appreciation for the University and the Sorrell College.

“As I look back to my time at TROY, I most fondly remember the teachers (Mr. [Gene] Sherman, specifically) who took interest in my education, and the friends I have made at TROY,” he said. “Over the years, I have also come to appreciate just how much TROY means not only to me, but to many others from rural communities with backgrounds similar to my own, and who are seeking education as a vehicle for success in their careers and lives.”