The Journey from High School Student to Role Model

COAP Alumnus Damon Duke

By Sanjay Paranandi

During his junior year at John Dewey High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., Damon Duke already was thinking about his future. He excelled in math and studied basic business skills that he knew would help him in his chosen career path. The question that faced him and every student his age was, "What do I want to do with my life?"

Luckily for Damon, he learned about the Career Opportunities in the Accounting Profession program. Sponsored by the NYSSCPA, FAE, academia, and the profession, COAP introduces minority high school juniors to the benefits of an accounting career and helps provide for a more diverse profession.

Damon, one of six students from his high school to apply to the program, looked to COAP to help him solidify his career choice and learn more about the accounting profession. Two five-day residency sessions held simultaneously at Pace University in New York City and Westchester and Hofstra University on Long Island form COAP's core. Through an intensive curriculum, students learn about financial statement analysis, computers, goal setting, resume writing, and verbal presentation skills, among other business and personal development topics. CPAs and other business professionals, who serve as important role models to students, teach all of the classes. An advisory board of accounting and business professionals oversees the program.

Damon was searching for a role model and found several during the residency program.

"One of the things that sticks out in my mind is the field trip to Coopers & Lybrand, at the time one of the Big Six accounting firms," Damon said. "We had an office tour, and auditors spoke to us about different aspects of accounting. After that whole experience, I knew I wanted to be an auditor."

Damon was a member of the 1993 COAP class and went on to major in accounting at New York University. The contacts he made through networking at the COAP program came to fruition and helped him secure various internships while attending college. These work experiences clarified his career goals.

Damon's COAP contacts continue to be an invaluable source and inspiration, and he points to Dan Stubbs, a member of the COAP advisory board and director of policyowner relations at The Prudential, as his biggest influence. The program exposed Damon to other role models as well.

"I look to Lemar Swinney, Tony Kendall, and Taiwo Danmola, African-American CPAs who became partners at accounting firms," he said. "It pushes me to get to that level."

Swinney, Kendall, and Danmola are COAP advisory board members and partners at KPMG LLP, Mitchell & Titus LLP, and Arthur Andersen LLP, respectively. Damon soon may be on his way to achieving similar career success: He recently landed his first full-time position at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as an associate in the assurance and business advisory services department. His goals now include becoming a CPA (he plans to sit for the May exam) and earning a graduate degree.

COAP was such a great influence on Damon that he gives back to the program, acting as a counselor during the summer residency session. He also is involved with other community projects. To the youth with whom he interacts through these experiences, Damon Duke has become what he once looked for--a role model. *

Editor's Note: In addition to Society funding, private donations from CPA firms, businesses, and individuals support COAP. For more information about the program, including volunteer opportunities, contact NYSSCPA Recruitment Specialist Sanjay Paranandi at (212) 719-8364, (800) 633-6320, or sparanandi@nysscpa.org.

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