UNIVERSITY NEWS
David Cook
Loving the Numbers & Beating the Odds
D
avid Cook is a man whose life is at the very least flavored by, if not driven by, numbers. His love for mathematics stretches back “for as long as I can remember,” he says. “Since first grade. I just loved math, even then.” Today, some numbers are especially meaningful for him. Take 24,600, which is the exceedingly small number of actuaries in the United States, according to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Cook, a senior studying actuarial science, is on his way to achieving the required, but challenging Society of Actuaries (SOA) associates certification, the first hurdle toward eventual society fellowship. In the United States, the necessary certification comes from either SOA or the Casualty Actuarial Society, and either path comes with a veritable Hadrian’s Wall of formidable exams. Fellowship calls for as many as a dozen exams, each demanding hundreds of hours of study and preparation while carrying an ominous national pass rate of about 30 percent. (There’s another defining number.) With two of the exams already under his belt, Cook displays no doubt about where his path is leading. Then there’s 3.979, a figure that goes a long way toward explaining why the daunting task of SOA certification isn’t particularly intimidating to Cook. It’s his grade point average, which reflects two classes in which he did not earn an A. As you might expect, he can indeed pinpoint that moment: “Two A minuses, the first semester of my freshman year,” he says, in a neutral, matter-of-fact way. 8 WEST CHESTER UNIVERSITY
Ultimately, actuarial science demands expertise in a number of interrelated subjects, including mathematics, probability theory, statistics, finance, economics, and computer science. For Cook, that ongoing study means entering WCU’s Applied Statistics graduate studies program next fall. Then there’s one in 68 — as in the current number of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cook is one of those, having been diagnosed with autism when he was three. His parents shared that diagnosis with him a few years later. “I always knew there was something missing in my life,” he says. “My peers were always ahead of me on the social scene. It helped me to start understanding why that was.” A spectrum condition that affects individuals differently and to varying degrees, ASD is a complex developmental disability that plays out in a huge variety of ways from one person to the next. For Cook, it was partly about the battle to find “people to share things with.” At West Chester, Cook has found a supportive environment, with both individuals and resources to help him. This year, the newly initiated Dub-C Autism Program (D-CAP) has proved to be an especially welcome resource. The D-CAP program provides social and behavior supports to help WCU students with autism develop the independent life and interpersonal skills to graduate and lead successful professional lives. It also partly addresses the phenomenon called “aging out,” a moniker used to describe the loss of support systems faced by older children and young adults as they mature. For many, their network of support is aimed at childhood and virtually ceases when the individual reaches the teen years. For Cook, D-CAP has meant increased opportunity to do what many take for granted: to socialize, have lunch with friends, watch movies together — in short, to address that need to find friends to share things with. “I had excellent resources from the Delaware Autism Program when I was young,” says Cook. “One-to-one support from faculty who really helped me.” But by the age of 12, he says, he was deemed “advanced enough to leave the program — to be completely, I guess, mainstream,” he says. That made the high school years challenging. “I had reached the age where kids start exploring the world, and I wish I had some extra guidance for that.” Noting the infancy of the D-CAP program — “they just got new furniture a month ago” — he looks forward to its growth. “I’m certain there will be more and more members every year.” For Cook, the future promises growth, too, not to mention the continuation of an unusually challenging academic career at WCU and the specter of years of vexing certification exams. Typically, though, he seems completely undaunted by the challenges that lie ahead; with a developing actuary’s outlook, the numbers always suggest promise to him. “West Chester’s a great school. I feel accepted here, and I’m really looking forward to doing my graduate work here.”