‘Seeing the Impact Is Important’

Grateful alumna supports Rutgers accounting students with her money and time.

Nan Okarma traveled a winding road to discover her passion for accounting. After studying engineering and pondering a career in fashion, a class in accounting changed her life. And those long days of working in accounting by day and studying at University College at Rutgers–New Brunswick at night have only made her want to share this love with others.

She and her husband have created the Nan Okarma, CPA, and Dr. Paul J. Okarma Accounting Scholarship for students in the Rutgers Business School Road to CPA program, which has been awarded to students for the past six years.

“In a roundabout way, I wound up where I was supposed to be,” Okarma says. “I know it was tough going to school and working.”

Okarma says she did not create the scholarship to receive recognition. “I’m just doing it to help, and because I’m able. I feel very fortunate to be able to do this.”

She says she discussed it with her husband, Paul, a retired regulatory affairs executive, and thought “it made a lot of sense” to set up a scholarship at Fairfield University (where her husband attended) and two scholarships at Rutgers to benefit students.

She is in the process of setting up a scholarship in memory of her father-in-law, Stanley Okarma. He intended to study pharmacy at Rutgers, but couldn’t afford the tuition during the Great Depression. In addition to their generous scholarships, Nan and Paul Okarma have established a significant endowment to fund scholarships in perpetuity through estate planning.

Okarma encourages others to “find ways to give back because it's so impactful to the students and it makes your life so much better,” she says.

Finding Community at Rutgers

She loves the sense of community Rutgers provides, she says. “When I was a student, it never seemed to matter if you were a day or night student; you were part of a community.”

After graduating from Bridgewater High School West in New Jersey in 1983, Okarma went to Virginia Tech to study engineering. She then planned to transfer to FIT to study fashion design but was encouraged to get an associate’s degree at a community college where she took an accounting class, and the professor recommended her for an accounting co-op job. She then met with the dean at University College at Rutgers, she says, after the three-month co-op lasted nine months. 

In accounting, “everything has to balance and equal, and it is almost like a puzzle,” she says. “And doing things like cashflow statements, balance sheets, and journal entries, everything relates to each other.” 

She recalls long days of working as a co-op student at Hoechst-Roussel Pharmaceuticals in Bridgewater, then grabbing a quick dinner at the student center in New Brunswick before attending night classes. She would often go to the “Coop,” a student hangout near the river dorms, where they kept class reading materials. 

Okarma was also in the right place at the right time when she met her future husband, Paul, at Hoechst-Roussel. As a co-op student, she delivered the mail. “So, I just started dropping off his mail, and that was how we met.”

Paul asked her to join the company softball team. “I am not athletic at all, but I said ‘yes.’” 

They relocated to Marlborough, Massachusetts, 22 years ago. She currently works as a finance manager with Concord Municipal Light Plant.

More Involved with Rutgers

After graduating from Rutgers, Okarma says she got more involved. Today, she attends Rutgers Club of New England football and basketball watch parties. She also enjoys the annual Christmas in Carol and Song concert at Kirkpatrick Chapel on the College Avenue campus in New Brunswick and visits campus frequently when she returns to see her mother, who still lives nearby.

"Staying involved with Rutgers is just so rewarding,” she says. “Rutgers is such a great school, and students should enjoy their time here. You get a great education, and it is such a wonderful institution.”

Okarma also loves meeting scholarship recipients at the spring scholarship luncheon. The first year of the scholarship, Okarma was unable to attend, and Rutgers University Foundation staff created a video thank you for her featuring the Okarma scholarship recipient. “I was so touched by that,” she says. “So, I told my boss, ‘I don’t care what is going on, but I am going to the scholarship luncheon next year.’”

She also loves meeting the students because she is proud of them and is happy to have helped them on their journey.

Okarma says many students want to pay it forward and say, “I hope I can do the same thing when I get older.”

Okarma says she grew up in a Christian household and was raised to give back. “I didn't want students to feel like they had to thank me,” but she wanted them to see her as “a normal person” and understand the impact of a scholarship.

Mentoring Accounting Students

In addition to the scholarship program, Okarma participates in a mentoring program at Rutgers Business School. She says she mentors one student a year, with Zoom meetings and occasionally lunch, if she is on campus. In December, she met with Ashley Katz, a sophomore accounting major in New Brunswick.

Katz is grateful to have Okarma as a mentor. “I feel like she has a lot of experience and knowledge that she has shared with me, and I think it’s been very beneficial for the internship application processes,” Katz says. “She really gives good advice."

Okarma recalls the first time she mentored a student and wondered what she could offer. “I’m just an accounting professional who’s been working in accounting and gotten to the level of senior management, but I’m not a big shot.”

When she met her first student, “I gave her my opinion, my insight, and my experience, and, at the end of the call, she said that she felt so much better and less stressed.”

She says the students whom she mentors and those who have received scholarships have been wonderful.

 “We've connected on LinkedIn, stayed in contact, and one of them graduated and got a job with PWC," Okarma says. "It is great to see their growth, all the good things they're doing, and know that I helped ease their burden a little bit. Sometimes the smallest things have the greatest impact."

Plan Your Legacy

Consider a gift to Rutgers through estate and gift planning.

Learn More