The Rutgers Business School graduate, who is part of KPMG, hopes to bring more diversity to American businesses

“I was a sponge for the people who have experience,” he said.

“The diversity on campus made what I had in it feel like home to me Jersey City‘ said Carter, 21, who grew up in Jersey City and graduated from McNair Academic High School.

In high school, Carter had a mentor who taught him accounting. “It inspired me to become an accountant,” Carter said. “He shed light on how having your own fortune, your own business, would bring you generational wealth. I wanted to learn more.”

Carter came to Rutgers Business School as part of the Business Student Transition at Rueger (B STAR). B-STAR participants arrive on campus six weeks before the start of their freshman year to meet and participate in the program, including their first college classes. Throughout the course, B-STAR continues to provide support, mentoring, and opportunities to network with alumni and other professionals.

Created and administered by the Office of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (IDEA), the award-winning B-STAR program has been helping students transition from high school to college since 2014.

“We had a group of friends (at B-STAR) that we could rely on,” Carter said. Throughout his time at Ruegerhe said B-STAR helped him mature through his professional education and development.

Carter hopes to make a difference as his career progresses. He said he wants to help fill the gap where there is a lack of diversity in corporate America. “It may be who you know, not what you know,” he said. “Once you’re in, don’t get comfy, don’t get comfy, help someone else get in.”

Carter took additional courses to complete the five-year accounting program in four years. Upon graduation, he will join KPMG as an Associate in Economic & Valuation Services, a division where he internd during the summer after junior year and assisted during the firm’s peak season this year.

Carter first came into contact with KPMG when the B-STAR program visited KPMG Short hills Office. The recruiters encouraged Carter to apply to KPMG’s Embark Scholars, a multi-year internship program that helps develop high-performing students of color to become future leaders at the company. Carter spent his sophomore summer at KPMG on a rotation program in Audit, Tax and Advisory.

During the first year, Carter spent three days in Hollywood, Californialearn more about the accounting profession through the Rutgers RISE program.

He also served as Treasurer of the Rutgers Real Estate Society and participated in the Road to Wall Street program.

However, his biggest role outside of teaching was as President of the Rutgers-Newark chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants. C Daniel Stubbs Jr.Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in Accounting, identified Carter as a leader after doing well in two difficult classes Stubbs teaches.

“I sought him out to lead our National Association of Black Accountants student chapter because of his outstanding leadership and willingness to win the consensus of his peers,” Stubbs said. “He has good time management skills as he did not allow my challenge to lead the chapter to negatively impact his academic success.”

Carter first heard about NABA from a colleague and then went to the organization’s conference Norfolk, Va., his first year. “I saw people who looked like me and had the same ambitions as me,” he said.

Being a leader of the NABA chapter boosted Carter’s confidence. “NABA is the pinnacle of my academic career,” he said. “As a result, I have an excellent network not only at school but also outside of school.”

SOURCE Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick