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On the MacArthur High School basketball court in Irving, Texas, Wayne Rowe (BBA ’08) sported the trendiest AND 1 clothes and shoes. Not because his mother indulged him with the expensive athletic gear, but because AND 1 had been sending him freebies since he was 11 years old. Applying the same drive and persistence that allows him to maintain his current 4.0 GPA in accounting at SMU Cox, the young Rowe had created a Web site using HTML code that was so impressive AND 1’s Corporate Communications office offered him a full-time job. Not much has changed. Today, the SMU junior, still ahead of the curve, is working at PricewaterhouseCoopers this summer, getting to know everything and everyone he can before he heads off into the real world.
Rowe loves talking to new people and learning more about what they do.
He sets high goals for himself and encourages other minority students to not only focus on academic excellence, but on building relationships with professors.
“Gaining insight from their years of experience will help me increase my business acumen and get a more well-rounded education,” he said.
Building a relationship with Cox Accounting Professor Wayne Shaw brought Rowe to SMU. The summer after graduating from high school, Rowe attended the National Association of Black Accountants’ (NABA) Accounting Career Awareness Program (ACAP) at Cox. The week-long program featured seminars, workshops, and keynote addresses on the accounting profession, plus a tailored curriculum that included an overview of finance and business careers through guest lectures by Cox faculty and local professionals. During the program, Rowe had the opportunity to tour the Southwest Airlines headquarters, Deloitte & Touche, and participate in an Executive Roundtable sponsored by Ernst & Young. During the program, Rowe met Professor Shaw after he gave ACAP students a lecture on basic business concepts and answered students’ questions.
Rowe chose Cox because of its prestige and small class sizes, which he felt would give him a better chance to interact with faculty and staff. He wasn’t disappointed. Rowe said, “Instructors like Dr. Jody Magliolo and Carley Andrews were always available to answer questions and provided clear instruction in class.”
More impressive than his GPA or Cox’s strong reputation is Rowe’s strong drive and motivation. He takes advantage of the Cox network, attending programs like Dinner on the Dean with Cox Dean Al Niemi and seminars about jobs in the accounting profession.
“The Cox network allows students to essentially pick among the crop of top-tier employers. Every day programs are held by major companies on campus, and all business students are invited. The network has also helped develop my leadership skills through seminars, organizations, and town hall meetings with the Dean,” he said. Rowe helped start a NABA chapter at SMU last year and will serve as treasurer in the fall.
Rowe felt it important to start NABA at SMU because he said, “As minorities, there will be glass ceilings and people whose perception of you is far from reality. But that shouldn’t deter anyone from their goals. Stay focused, and set high expectations for yourself – higher than any manager or college professor can set for you. Be relentless in everything that you do, and understand that you may have to work twice as hard as your peers to achieve the same success.”
His ingenuity was not ignored by employers. Despite competing with seniors and graduate students at an SMU job fair, Rowe secured a two-summer internship with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“Even though I was only a sophomore and had only taken one accounting class, I went to the job fair dressed the part and talked to the people at PWC.”
Rowe will spend this summer learning the ins and outs of the accounting firm with an Internal Firm Services internship, and next summer he will work in PricewaterhouseCooper’s auditing department, really putting to use his love of numbers.
Rowe hopes to obtain his Master of Science in Accounting degree and his CPA license from Cox, and then start his own regional accounting firm and serve as an advisor for small businesses to increase profitability.
Until then, Rowe has plenty of hobbies to keep him busy. He loves basketball and computers (mainly building Web sites), and spends most of his time with his girlfriend of three years. No dates on Thursdays though. Rowe, valuing the importance of “looking forward but not forgetting to look back on where you came from,” mentors at-risk teens in Garland on Thursday afternoons. He hopes his presence will help children see they have the chance to do above and beyond what he has done, despite disadvantages they may face.
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