Brockton mom gets surprise of a lifetime when she's awarded life-changing scholarship

BROCKTON — With her two daughters at school and her husband at work, 32-year-old Diane Zouabet Tchaya starts her hour-and-a-half drive from her home in Brockton to Northeastern University's campus in Boston.

On campus, she takes a full day of classes from around 8 a.m. until 1:30 p.m., working toward a master's degree in accounting which she'll receive at the end of August.

The previous night, she worked a long shift at the League School of Greater Boston in Walpole, where she is a direct residential aid for children diagnosed with autism each weekday from 11 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.

She chews gum during her classes just to keep herself awake.

"I work overnight then come back to school during the day," she said. "In class, I'm so sleepy trying to keep up."

Tchaya, who immigrated with her family to Boston from Cameroon just under 6 years ago, works tirelessly every day of the week to make sure her daughters have food to eat, and her classes are paid for.

"It's just hard to handle everything, you know," she said. "And with the children, it's not easy."

On April 13, she was sitting in class when she received an email from the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants (MassCPAs) titled "Congratulations."

She was awarded a major scholarship that would subsidize her education.

"You know when you have your heart going fast," she said. "I had to read the email again to make sure it wasn't some kind of scam."

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Before that moment, she didn't have enough to pay for the semester, even though it was already underway. After finding out her government loan wouldn't cover her tuition, she realized she had around $20,000 left unpaid.

The assistant director of her program sent her a link to the MassCPA scholarship webpage, and she decided to take her chances and apply.

"I was just not expecting that," she said. "It was a huge pressure that was lifted off my back."

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MassCPA is a statewide collective of certified public accountants. They provide accounting students across Massachusetts with scholarships ranging from $2,500 to $10,000, entirely funded by donations through the organization's Educational Foundation.

Since the program began in 2006, the association has awarded over 300 scholarships, totaling over $1.5 million. Tchaya was one of 44 students awarded scholarships this year.

“The Society is honored to support these extraordinary students who are the next generation of Massachusetts CPAs,” said Amy Pitter, president and CEO of MassCPAs, at this year's award ceremony on May 10. “This dedicated and talented group makes us all feel confident about the future of the profession, and we couldn’t be prouder to help them along their journey.”

Long before beginning her master's program in 2021, Tchaya moved to Massachusetts from Cameroon at the age of 24, leaving behind her husband. English wasn't her first language.

She considered becoming a lawyer, but eventually decided to go into accounting. She was good at it, and wanted to be surrounded by successful people. She was accepted to the University of Massachusetts-Boston, where she received a bachelor's degree in economics.

She had to work full-time on top of her classes. She worked at Logan Airport during the day and took her economic classes in the evening.

Being an undergraduate at a public university, she easily received funding for her classes through the FAFSA. But once she began her master's program, the situation was different. She had to take out a loan, which didn't cover her full tuition.

"You have all this tuition because it's a private school," she said. "And it's really huge."

Now, all her classes take place during the day, so she has to work through the night to afford the tuition while her husband cares for the children at home in Brockton.

When her husband Casimir Mvetumi got to the United States in 2017, he worked as an Uber driver and learned English on the side. He now works as an financial analyst for Wayfair.

In January 2022, Tchaya moved her family to Brockton where she now lives with her husband and two daughters, ages 6 and 7. Now that they live in Brockton, they don't have family or friends close by to help with their kids, but nevertheless, Tchaya makes it work.

"We need to do what we need to do," she said.

Tchaya will receive a master's degree in accounting from Northeastern University at the end of August.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton: Diane Zouabet Tchaya awarded MassCPAs accounting scholarship