C.W. Post’s Valedictorian
Keeps Up a Family Tradition of Academic Excellence

Valedictorian David Courtemanche with his parents Patricia and Regis.

May 5, 2003 - David Courtemanche is wrapping up his family’s academic career on a high note. The youngest of seven children, whose eldest sister graduated valedictorian of her high school class and whose father, Regis Courtemanche, is a renowned history professor, will graduate on May 11 as valedictorian of the class of 2003 of the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in Brookville. He will graduate summa cum laude with a bachelor of science degree in business administration with a specialization in finance.

David decided to major in business after he took an economics class as part of the C.W. Post Honors Program. "I grew up in an atmosphere of liberal arts," said Courtemanche, whose sister became a professor of comparative literature and whose father has taught history at C.W. Post for 36 years. "For me, finance was an opportunity to learn something new."

Two internships helped him gain perspective on the real world of finance. First, he interned at Prudential Securities in Woodbury. Since last May, he’s been working with Ivy Asset Management in Garden City, in its investment department, running statistics and analyzing hedge funds. He enjoys the vagaries of the field. "The market doesn’t lie to you and it won’t carry you along because you’re a nice person. Anyone can make money on a bull market, the real challenge is how to deal with things when they’re not going well."

Although he is expected to graduate with a perfect 4.0 grade point average, Courtemanche, a 22-year-old Huntington native, maintains his chief focus throughout school wasn’t just to get good grades. "Critical thinking is the real take-away here. When I came to C.W. Post, my goal wasn’t the scores. The value to me was, ‘what did I learn?’ I wanted to extract as much information as possible from my professors and textbooks."

Although Courtemanche never took any of his father’s classes, he enjoyed seeing his dad on campus. "It was a great convenience. I’d run into him and tell him how mom was when I left the house. It also made me see him differently. People would tell me they took him and they loved his class. They looked up to him as a huge authority figure and, to me, he’s just Pop."

A member of the Cooperative Education Honor Society, the Business Honor Society and the Freshman Honor Society, Courtemanche looks forward to the future.

He doesn’t plan to apply for finance jobs right away. Instead, he’d like to travel—maybe visiting his sister in London, taking a road trip through the U.S. with some friends or even going to Puerto Rico. "The farthest I’ve been from home is Denver and that was just in January, so there are still many places I would like to visit and experience," he said.

"I’m not scared at all," he continued. "I think many people are intimidated if they don’t have a job lined up right away, but I’m looking forward to all the possibilities even if I don’t know what they are yet."

Courtemanche will be one of more than 1,600 students who will don their caps and gowns on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 11, 2003 for 45th annual commencement exercises of the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. The campus has awarded more than 85,000 degrees in its 49-year history, through a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programs. For additional information, call the Office of Public Relations at (516) 299-2333.