In recognition of Jude Castaneda Quijano's top academic achievement, he will receive the Delta Sigma Pi Scholarship Key at the College of Business Honors Recognition reception on Thursday, May 22, 2014.
Jude was born in Guam, where growing up was not easy. With little family support, he quickly learned self-reliance by working through high school in order to purchase school supplies and clothes.
A year after graduating, his childhood friend, visiting on break from her studies at the California College of the Arts, convinced him to move to the Bay Area. She didn’t have to do much convincing. He immediately agreed; it was his chance to pursue a better life. Luckily, he had money saved and, with $1,500 in his pocket, arrived in California. Once here, he stayed with his friend, and then went to live with his aunt whom he had not previously met but welcomed him into her San Jose home. Her generosity was a blessing as it gave him time to get settled and land a job at Macy’s.
After a year at Macy’s, he was recruited by Magnolia Audio Video. There, he earned the President’s Club Award—an award given to top sales people—four times as sales associate, and was promoted to manager of the San Ramon location. Two years after, he was promoted to an experimental department catering to home developers and technologically sophisticated homeowners. Though he loved working for Magnolia, he didn’t see sales as a permanent career. Working from eight to 12 hours a day for six or seven days a week made going back to school impossible.
As a result, he transferred to Pacific Sales, a sister company, that offered a more regular schedule, and attended morning and night classes at City College of San Francisco. A year later, he submitted his resignation and became a full time student. Upon taking an intro accounting class, Jude discovered his passion for accounting, and transferred to SF State to pursue his accounting degree. Since then, Jude has become a member of Beta Alpha Psi and Beta Gamma Sigma.
After graduation, he begins an internship at Burr Pilger Mayer, and will attend Golden Gate University’s Master of Taxation program, and then take the CPA exam. Once he completes grad school, he hopes to pursue a career in corporate tax and become a partner in a CPA firm.
Though he’s had little time for anything other than studying, in his free time Jude enjoys discovering great new restaurants, running, biking and snowboarding. He especially enjoys kickboxing, which he practiced for five years but has been on hiatus for three. He does, however, intend to begin training again after grad school.
Delta Sigma Pi is a co-ed professional business fraternity for all business and economics majors with a 2.0 GPA or greater.
