Recent DePaul University graduate Bill Vadbunker will be taking home the gold in November.

     Vadbunker will be awarded the Illinois CPA Society's Gold Excel Award Nov. 18 for earning the top scores on the CPA exam taken by more than 3,400 aspiring certified public accountants last May. With 100 as a perfect score, Vadbunker scored two 99s and two 98s on the four-part test.

     His feat is all the more amazing because only about 26 percent of Illinois CPA test-takers even pass the grueling two-day exam. Accounting graduates must pass the exam, offered in May and in November, to become certified public accountants.

     "With the CPA exam, it's hard to gauge how you did," Vadbunker said. "I walked away from the exam feeling pretty good, but the scores were a nice surprise."

     Vadbunker, 22, works in the tax department of Arthur Andersen in Chicago. One of five children, he grew up in Onarga, Ill., a rural community of 1,200 near Kankakee. His father, William P. Vadbunker, a railroad singalman, died in a railway accident when the younger Vadbunker was in high school. As the oldest boy, Vadbunker said he tries to be a role model for his younger siblings. He graduated summa cum laude last June with a bachelor's degree in accounting from the Strobel Honors Program at DePaul and credits the program with helping him succeed on the CPA Exam.

     About 100 DePaul freshmen are recruited to enroll as Strobel scholars by DePaul's School of Accountancy each year. Students who stay in the program take their accounting courses together in small classes from a core group of accountancy faculty. The program provides students with a technical specialty in accounting, a firm foundation in all business related disciplines, analytical and communication skills, and a broad-based liberal arts education.

     Because students in the program begin taking accountancy classes freshman year, they complete the accounting program in the fall of senior year, allowing them to devote more time to job interviews and preparation for the CPA Exam.

     DePaul has a history of producing Illinois Gold Excel Award winners. Strobel scholar Alan Kuska achieved the state's top scores in May 1998, Alex Politansky was the best scorer in Illinois in November 1995 and Issa Wafa earned the highest exam scores on the state's May 1995 test.

     Robert Peters, the director of the Strobel Honors Program, said the program's lockstep approach helps its highly motivated students succeed. "The students get to know each other and their professors well," he said. "Many classes involve group projects. The camaraderie that develops among students makes it easier for groups to form and for group leaders to be chosen."

     Vadbunker agrees.

     "I think one benefit of the program is that you start in your freshman year and are with the same peer group for four years," he said. "When you are with the same students, it's a more comfortable environment. You ask more questions and are apt to learn more. The teachers are also really concerned about individual performance, and that attention increases motivation."