Accounting student to have research paper published; also earns scholarship

College students can tell you that doing research for a class can be both time consuming and difficult. For others, the benefits, opportunities, and experiences gained from doing undergraduate research are essential to a future career, which is the category Bloomsburg University accounting student Cade Bleashka falls under.  

 Bleashka was recently notified that his research paper had been accepted for publication in the (KJUR) Keystone Journal of Undergraduate Research with minor revisions. KJUR is a faculty-reviewed multidisciplinary journal that promotes outstanding undergraduate research.  

In addition, Bleashka was awarded the ACFE’s (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners) Ritchie-Jennings Memorial Scholarship. This program was established to create opportunities for students who have shown achievement in fraud-related studies. This national program awards scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 with Bleashka receiving a $5,000 scholarship. 

Bleashka, who is in BU’s Honors College, is from Mahanoy City, Pa. He is the lead author on the research paper which began over a year and a half ago. Bleashka is a junior by year, senior by credit hours. He has dedicated a significant amount of time to his publication and was assisted by Darrin Kass, professor of management, Bleashka's faculty advisor and co-author for the research.  

Bleashka's paper titled “Self-Other Rating Agreement and Humility Narcissism, and Academic Performance” determined the importance of considering both the self and other perceptions in research on personality and individual differences.  

"Our view of our skills and abilities often do not match the perceptions of others. People can overestimate, underestimate, or match (accurate) in comparison to others. Our study found that this match or mismatch can have important consequences," said Bleashka, “Specifically, we found that people who tend to underestimate their abilities have higher GPA’s than those who are accurate or overestimate. Additionally, we found that over estimators were the most narcissistic,” said Bleashka, “Overall, our study demonstrated that it is important to consider both self and other perceptions in research on personality and individual differences.” 

Time management is essential for Bleashka as he had been working on his paper since the winter of 2020.  

"Many long hours have gone into the process of writing this paper, due to being a full-time college student," said Bleashka. "In December 2020, after the preceding Fall semester, I began the process of data entry and preparation for our paper. It continued until this past December 2021 when we submitted the work."  

Bleashka anticipates publication within the year and is optimistic about his future career.  

"The goal was always publication,” said Bleashka, "The paper will likely be published within the year, though the exact date is unknown due to the periodical nature of the journal."    

After BU, Bleashka already knows what he would like to do in his career. "I want to become a fraud examiner or an auditor for the federal government. My goal is to work for the FBI as a fraud investigator,” said Bleashka.