A message from the Director

As CSUN President Erika D. Beck and Nazarian College Dean Chandra Subramaniam have outlined in their greetings, the CSUN VITA Clinic marked another stellar year of growth and service in 2024, powered by 282 student volunteers. These students met the rigorous demands of the recent tax season amid our high-paced work environment with professionalism and excellence, a testament to the world-class education they receive here at CSUN. As a group, they have also managed to rank, according to the IRS, as the top-ranked VITA site nationally in terms of transmitted returns for the second year in a row among 6,974 sites.

I believe the transformative power of the CSUN VITA Clinic is exponential. It provides vital hands- on learning experiences for our students, not just in tax preparation and financial planning, but in customer service and client relations. With these important skills in their tool belts at graduation time, our VITA Clinic student volunteers become highly sought-after future employees, with many securing employment in their chosen fields even before they receive their diplomas.

For our low-income clients, some of whom are recent immigrants, CSUN VITA Clinic is a resource of critical importance. Whether they use our clinic to obtain an ITIN number, to file their tax returns or to resolve a tax dispute, our clients receive professional service at no charge. And for those clients who need interpretation, the clinic offers trained student volunteers to translate in Spanish and American Sign Language, because we want every client to know they are respected and valued.

With the designation as the largest VITA Clinic in the nation based on number of returns filed, CSUN VITA also helps start, mentor and grow VITA Clinics at universities and colleges across the Southland. We do this because we want tax and accounting students throughout the region to experience the same educational benefits as our Matadors, and we want all low-income taxpayers to have a trusted place in their community, where they can file their returns and claim their much-needed tax refunds and credits. Here at CSUN, we know that as we build financial literacy and empower our clients with professional tax preparation and financial planning, they in turn fuel our local economy. We’re so proud to bring that same economic engine to other campuses through our VITA Clinic partnerships.

Behind this massive and life-changing effort are several key individuals I must thank. Together with Professor Lucy Nalbandian, our VITA Clinic faculty member, I want to recognize our exceptional leadership team, including our dedicated VITA Clinic co-coordinators Areli Araujo and Cynthia Montes; our operations supervisors Melissa Cortez, Maria Anaya de Monarrez, Nelson Granados, Derek Scalercio and Lily Cabrales; our social media communication specialist Lizette Macias; our photographer Carolyn Arredondo, and our student assistants Adilene Macias, Selena Ortiz and Karen Gonzalez Munoz. Their tireless commitment, coupled with their versatility and ingenuity, is critically important to the success of the clinic’s operations.

During the recent Department of Accounting’s Awards Banquet, Professor Nalbandian and I had the pleasure of recognizing several outstanding VITA clinicians for exemplary service, including Yen Chiu, Javier Valladares, Lily Cabrales, Eileen Sarkisian, Vera Albanes, Arno Nizamian, Kenia Gonzales, Jose Garcia, Sona Petrosyan, Cindy De La Toree, and Dianifer Rodriguez. These individuals were recognized with a $1,000 scholarship from the Bookstein VITA Endowment, the Kelley Rivera Tax Diva Endowment and the El Centro de Amistad Scholarship Endowment.

We look forward to next year as we continue to expand our services to the community.

Rafael Efrat, J.S.D.
Director, CSUN VITA Clinic
Bookstein Chair in Taxation
David Nazarian College of Business and Economics