Northeast COAP Program Hits High Notes

Northeast COAP Program Hits High Notes

Chock-full of field trips, seminars, interviews, the Northeast COAP program came together well at Siena College.

Northeast Chapter member Len Stokes organized this year’s program.

“This was a very exciting week that was jam packed,” Stokes said. “The students had field trips to two CPA firms, used the Siena Trading Room, and had interviews. They learned about business and accounting with a number of faculty presentations and guest speakers.”

Seminars held included forensic accounting, entrepreneurship, leadership, communications, how to prepare a resume, and business ethics.

Guest speakers enhanced the program, and shared their business experiences with the students, Stokes said. Speakers included Michelle Goodwine, president, Integrated HR Strategies; Swinka Richards, accountant with New York State United Teachers; Carolyn Houck and Mark Bruno, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Micheal Durante, of Dorfman Robbie.

The students seemed to express curiosity and eagerness about the profession, Stokes said.

“The students were very interested,” he said. “They asked questions during the office visits and the seminars, and they were able to relate these experiences during the interviews. There was much more excitement about the accounting profession at the end of the week than at the beginning.”

Stokes emphasized that the visits to the CPA firms and the interview (they did a mock interview for an “assistant coordinator” position in the future) seemed to especially pique the students’ interest.

“The students really liked knowing that the payoff at the end was worthwhile, as evidenced through the visits at the offices,” he said. “This year there was a Siena junior who was there for everything. In the future, we hope one of these students will be able to help out. They had a great deal of enthusiasm about obtaining the assistant coordinator position. This tells me that the program was a success.”