\u201cI will forever be a strong advocate for Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ,\u201d says Tamour Kousha \u201905, while reminiscing on his time as an undergraduate student. Tamour graduated from Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ with a BS in Accounting in 2005. In July 2018, he was named the Chief Financial Officer of Liberty Science Center, a non-profit interactive science museum and learning center located in Jersey City, New Jersey. Liberty Science Center is one of the largest non-profit organizations in New Jersey, where more than 750,000 students, teachers and parents visit each year.<\/p>\n
Before joining Liberty Science Center, Tamour served as Chief Financial Officer for New Jersey Community Development Corporation (NJCDC), a non-profit community development and social service agency located in Paterson, New Jersey. Tamour also serves as a trustee and chair of the finance committee for the Community Charter School of Paterson, a 900 student charter school which was founded by NJCDC.<\/p>\n
For many students, choosing a major field of study can be a difficult decision. Tamour began taking accounting classes in high school and was encouraged by his teacher to pursue a career in accounting. He decided to major in accounting at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ and his interest in the field grew stronger as he progressed through his academic career.<\/p>\n
As an accounting major at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ, Tamour was part of the Accounting Society, an SGA Class III organization consisting of future accounting professionals. In addition to being a member of the Accounting Society, Tamour was able to further increase his knowledge in the field by taking part in internships and work opportunities provided by Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ\u2019s career services. During his junior year, he had the opportunity to intern for a large fashion company as an accounting intern. Tamour also worked with a recruiting agency which placed him at a company where he assisted the Controller with various accounting and administrative functions. \u201cThese opportunities were extremely helpful. They allowed me to gain hands-on experience in my field, which boosted my resume and helped me tremendously during interviews with potential employers\u201d.<\/p>\n
As many undergraduates experience, Tamour often found it difficult to balance school and work. He generally worked 2-3 jobs while taking 15-18 credits each semester. While this was challenging for him, it did teach him how to properly manage his time, multi-task and prioritize his work as well as having patience in the midst of a hectic work and school schedule.<\/p>\n
Without a doubt, Tamour credits his education and experience at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ as the launching point for a successful career in accounting. As he puts it, \u201cI always felt that Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ State wanted me to succeed as a student, graduate with a quality education and enter the workforce with the tools needed to succeed. The School of Business provided mock interview sessions, career fairs and on-campus interviews with accounting firms, which helped me land multiple job offers prior to graduating.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for his favorite memory of the University? Tamour holds a special place in his heart for Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ, not only for the exceptional education he received, but for being the place where he met Gina Kousha \u201805, his wife of 9 years.<\/p>\n
To current undergraduate students, he offers this piece of advice: \u201cNever stop learning, throw yourself out of your comfort zone and always give back \u2013 whether it\u2019s volunteering, mentoring or lending a helping hand to someone who needs it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The chief financial officer of Liberty Science Center reminisces on his time at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ State and advises current students to never stop learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":207213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-77_alumni-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207212"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209599,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207212\/revisions\/209599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}