Graduation | Old Gold & Black
April 28, 2022 | Page 7
ACCOUNTANCY
DAVID HOOKER CONNOR MCNEELY Editor-in-Chief Growing up, David Hooker wanted to be one of two things: a racecar driver or an astronaut. He wasn’t sure how well he’d do those jobs, but as long as he had a good time doing them, he’d be just fine. Now, Hooker is on his way to work as a tax accountant — and will probably have a good time doing it. Hooker didn’t always know he would be an accountant. He would find his way during his time at Wake Forest, but until then, he only had the advice of his brother to go on. “Back in high school, my brother, who was a finance major, took accounting and hated it with a passion,” Hooker said. “He got back one year and looked at me and said: ‘You’re going to love this.’” And he did. Hooker landed in an accounting class and realized that he was actually “kind of good at this stuff”. From there, he continued to bounce around until he found a happy medium between banking and consulting: tax in mergers and acquisitions (M&A). This role makes Hooker a kind of business oracle for companies. With his team, he analyzes tax issues with the companies acquiring or being acquired, and then advises their leadership based on potential tax exposures and helps structure insurance deals – typically reps and warranties insurance policies – which are an increasingly crucial component of the M&A sector. Hooker also has worked on structuring M&A deals in tax-efficient methods. In this kind of planning, accountants analyze revenue codes in order to save money for their clients. “That was the part I found most interesting because it’s like a puzzle to me,” Hooker said. Shortly after taking a liking to his accounting courses, Hooker was accepted into the Wake Forest School of Business , where he found plenty
of opportunities to connect and get recruited by top accounting firms. “It was an interesting experience because the classes [at the business school] are so difficult,” Hooker said. “And also, when I was going through recruiting, the position that I will graduate into didn’t exist back then. I’d have to network my way into the role, to keep meeting them and badgering them and saying, ‘hey, still interested? Don’t forget about me’. It was exhausting at times.” Hooker’s persistence paid off. Although he started off in an internship fixing laptops, Hooker found himself working as a property taxes consultant, which gave him good experience in a field that he could fall back on. His most recent internship was with Houlihan Lokey, in the lowerto-middle M&A market. “I showed up on the first day and they were like, ‘we’ve never had an intern before. So we’re going to go through our project, and you do your absolute best,’” Hooker said. “I learned a ton really quickly because it’s either sink or swim. I loved it. Loved the team.” With these valuable experiences and a year of business school accounting courses ahead, Hooker says he will “really be in the thick of it” next year. Until then, he’s working to the finish line and enjoying the last bit of time he has at Wake Forest. Hooker has been involved with a number of extracurricular organizations on campus, including Alpha Phi Omega (Wake Forest’s service fraternity) and Catholic Community. He also enjoys Wake Forest’s small but tight-knit community of aspiring accountants. “There’s not like a gazillion kids in it,” Hooker said. “Accountants are very similar people, you could say. There’s really not a lot of variation.” Size and variation aside, Hooker represents another exceptional accounting class to come out of Wake Forest’s accounting program – which is in the top 5% of accounting programs nationwide.
Katie Fox / Old Gold & Black
AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES
SIERRA DEVEAUX
CONNOR MCNEELY Editor-in-Chief Sierra DeVeaux will graduate as the first African American Studies major in the history of Wake Forest University. DeVeaux made the decision to major in African American Studies just before her senior year and found a discipline and faculty altogether different from any that she had ever encountered. Wake Forest launched the African American studies program in the summer of 2021. It is led by program director and distinguished Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities Dr. Corey D. B. Walker, who has also worked as an external consultant on Wake Forest’s Slave, Race and Memory project. Walker, a mentor to DeVeaux, spoke to her exceptional skills as a student and her remarkable desire to learn. “Sierra is a creative, committed and compassionate scholar,” Walker said. “She practices a deep ethic of intellectual hospitality that complements her passion for creating a more just and humane world ... it was a true gift to learn with her.” For DeVeaux, Walker’s classes and the new African American Studies program became a place in which her passion for learning could flourish. “This department and my experiences with its professors definitely push your intellectual capacity in ways that I really embrace,” DeVaux said. “They get you to think critically and always ask questions constantly.” DeVeaux’ curiosity about the academic institution has powered her excellence within her studies at Wake Forest. She has also studied within the sociology department at Wake Forest and intended to major in the discipline until the African American Studies program came into existence. One of the most important influences on DeVeaux’ academic experience was Dr. Brittany Battle, an assistant professor in the sociology
department and affiliate faculty in the African American Studies program. “Dr. Battle started my journey as a student in her Intro to Sociology class,” DeVaux said. “She and other professors were some of the first people to expose me to thinking about the world, and also caring for people’s humanity.” Battle highlighted DeVeaux’s intrepid passion for sociology and her other studies. “Sierra was one of the best students I’ve taught!” Battle said. “Her intellectual curiosity and initiative made her such a pleasure to have in all of my seminars.” After exhausting many academic catalogs, DeVeaux’s hunger for knowledge led her to its real-life application. And her major met her in that pursuit. “A large part of the program is connecting the university with the community. You cannot just talk about something all the time and expect to automatically put it into practice,” DeVeaux said. “What we’re talking about is not just ideology, it’s not just theories, there’s actual practice that goes along with it.” DeVeaux’s experiences in the classroom often translate into her life outside of Wake Forest. As an individual with a deeply creative mind, DeVeaux enjoys putting her writing, painting and video editing skills to use with her friends at Wake Forest and also in downtown Winston-Salem at Umoja African Crafts, a nonprofit store that sells handmade items crafted by artisans in Kenya. Now, DeVeaux faces a journey from traditional academic instruction into a world where her intellectual curiosity will be without limits. She plans to spend the upcoming year after graduation investing time into her most meaningful relationships with others. “I just wanted to remind myself after graduating that I can’t forget to live,” DeVaux said. “I can go to England and spend time with my family that I haven’t been able to before and make connections with people that I wouldn’t have expected.”
Katie Fox / Old Gold & Black
