Since 2020 the CAS has offered its Student Central Summer Program to participants from around the world. Presented virtually, it was originally intended to replace canceled summer internships as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the eight-week mentor-led program, students learn about the P&C industry, pricing, reserving, predictive modeling and interview preparation. Webinars and town hall meetings are recorded for those unable to attend live. The program culminates in a case study competition with prizes.

Each week cohorts of students discuss each topic with their mentors, who are actuaries employed across the industry. My first volunteer experience for the CAS was as a mentor for the 2022 program. Being a former math teacher, I enjoyed explaining how actuarial concepts are applied to typical work assignments. We checked in with two past participants of the mentor-led program, Emily Piszczek and Tinashe Chikwamba, to see what they’re doing today. The extended online version of Future Fellows contains three additional interviews with:

• Hunter Stanek, a sophomore at the University of Michigan, who has an internship lined up for this summer.
• Kate Sebaganji, a senior at the University of St. Thomas, who has accepted a full-time position upon graduation.
• Zoie Obst, a senior at DePauw University, whose internship led to a full-time position upon graduation.

Meet Emily Piszczek (2021 attendee) and Tinashe Chikwamba (2022 attendee)

Emily Piszczek currently lives in Chicago and graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology in December 2022 with a bachelor’s and master’s in applied mathematics and a minor in economics.

Tinashe Chikwamba lives in Chitungwiza, in Zimbabwe. He is a student at the University of Zimbabwe, where he is studying for an undergraduate degree in actuarial science.

Future Fellows: How did you first learn of the actuarial profession?

Emily Piszczek: I wasn’t familiar with actuarial science until my third year of college when I started talking to a few fellow math students about their career plans. I was able to learn more about the profession through friends, professors and my academic advisor.
Tinashe Chiwamba: I learned of the actuarial profession at a career symposium I attended during my gap year soon after high school.

FF: What motivated you to participate in the Student Central Summer Program?
EP: My academic advisor introduced me to the Casualty Actuarial Society and suggested I apply to the Summer Program. Having no actuarial experience yet, it seemed like the perfect next step for me.  
TC: Ever since I started my actuarial science degree at the University of Zimbabwe, I had an appreciation of the essential role actuaries play in analyzing data, modeling it and communicating findings to managers and stakeholders, but I still could not figure out what actuaries did on a day-to-day basis. I wanted to understand the skillset they possess and the tools they used to help them perform these functions. Thus, ever since then, I have been searching for job shadowing and internship opportunities to help provide answers to these questions.

FF: What did you like most about the Summer Program?
EP: I was very happy with the experience because it covered such a broad range of introductory topics. I was able to enter with little to no knowledge of the profession, and at the end of the summer I felt I had a strong grasp of what to expect when entering my future career. Additionally, I gained confidence that the actuarial profession was a good fit for my professional strengths and interests.
TC: First, I enjoyed the weekly cohort meetings we had with our mentors. There was so much diversity in the discussions, as I had cohort members from different backgrounds and fields with different, but eye-opening understandings of the actuarial field and its concepts. I also enjoyed how our mentors, Glenn Yancy and Keith Berman, really took their time to share their journeys and experience and to answer the many questions I had.

FF: Where are you now? Have you completed a P&C actuarial internship or obtained a full-time actuarial position?
EP: The summer following the Student Central Summer Program, I obtained a summer internship at Kemper Insurance on the P&C actuarial team. The summer internship turned into a part-time internship in the fall, as I finished up my final semester at Illinois Institute of Technology. In December 2022, I was able to smoothly transition to full-time at Kemper on the same team.
TC: I am currently an intern in the data analytics and actuarial services department at FBC Holdings. The firm offers a wide array of insurance products in the property and casualty sector, from motor vehicle and property insurance to hospital cash plans. Our role in the analytics department is to analyze the insurance products offered, to enhance effective pricing and reserve setting, which is of high importance in the inflationary environment we operate in.

FF: What knowledge from the Summer Program helped you in your internship or job?
EP: The Summer Program primarily provided me with two important things; first, I was able to go into my Kemper Internship with a basic knowledge of actuarial concepts, giving me a jump-start on more in-depth learning for technical skills. Second, I discovered the importance of when and how to ask the right questions. When in doubt, always ask! It’s important to prepare questions before meeting with your coach, supervisor or mentor to maximize your time and communication. Regularly asking questions also serves as feedback —  that way your mentor knows how much you’ve learned and where they can help you improve.
TC: The role I am currently in involves summarizing insurance and claims data for motor vehicle and health insurance. I am also involved in dealing with loans in the building society and microplan side of the business by creating reports and communicating these to top management. The Summer Program gave me the proper introduction to essential Excel tools that make my day-to-day tasks easier and faster. On top of that, the topics on pricing and reserving have helped me to gain a deeper understanding and insight into the insurance products offered by our firm.

FF: Do you have any advice for future participants?
EP: The most significant divide I noticed in the CAS Summer Program students was between those who spoke up with their ideas and asked questions and those who were too shy to speak up. As students, we are expected to fail in order to really grow. It’s important to step outside of your comfort zone to ask your mentors about “big picture” ideas as well as small, technical details. Take chances by voicing your answer to a question because it’s the fastest way for your mentor to help you learn. The mentors have a wealth of knowledge, but they won’t always know what’s most important for you unless you speak up.
TC: I would advise future participants of the program to make use of the chance to build and widen their professional network. The actuarial community is a tight-knit community and increasing your network always helps you to gain an appreciation of how others do their thing. It is also not surprising to work with each other in the future.

Hunter Stanek (2022)

FF: Please introduce yourself.  
HS: My name is Hunter Stanek, and I grew up in Midlothian, Virginia. Currently, I am living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I am a sophomore at the University of Michigan. I plan to graduate in May 2025 with a major in actuarial mathematics.

FF: How did you first learn of the actuarial profession?
HS: I got my first exposure to the actuarial profession through my mom. She was an Actuarial Analyst at Mercer, working with pension plans for a couple of years, before becoming a stay-at-home mom. She was a math major, just like me, and always told me that I’d make a good actuary. I researched good jobs for math majors, and actuary kept on coming up again and again. That’s what motivated me to pursue this profession.

FF: What motivated you to participate in the Student Central Summer Program?
HS: I didn’t have an actuarial internship going into the Summer of 2022, so I wanted an experience which would provide the same benefits as an internship. I researched the CAS Student Central Summer Program, and it provided a lot of those same benefits, like overviews of property & casualty insurance, practice with Excel, pricing and reserving workshops, opportunities for mentorship, and an end-of-the program project.

FF: What did you like most about the Summer Program?
HS: I really enjoyed the mentorship program. It provided a great way to network with three certified actuaries and five other actuarial students. Not only did I learn valuable industry insight from the actuaries, but I got to share my experiences with my fellow program participants as well. The actuarial profession really is a small profession, and I’m sure I’ll run into them again.

FF: Where are you now? Have you completed a P&C actuarial internship or obtained a full-time actuarial position?
HS: I will be interning at Liberty Mutual over the summer for my first actuarial internship.

FF: What knowledge from the Summer Program helped you in your internship or job?
HS: The Summer Program was extremely helpful in my internship search, especially with my Liberty Mutual interviews. The overview of property & casualty insurance gave me an excellent high-level view of the way most property & casualty insurance companies work. I felt confident about my performance in the case study portion of the interview, because of knowledge gained from the pricing and reserving portions of the student program. Additionally, the Excel assignments gave me a sufficient understanding of Excel for performing basic actuarial functions. Most importantly, the case competition about phone warranty plans gave me an invaluable experience both with learning how to price actuarial products, and learning how to work effectively with other teammates who each had their own unique strengths.

FF: Do you have any advice for future participants?
HS: The program is what you put into it. If you take it seriously, you will gain serious knowledge of the property and casualty insurance industry, and come away with skills that are invaluable for a prospective job search. I would highly recommend this program to anyone who doesn’t have an actuarial summer internship, because it provides a lot of the same benefits an internship would. Additionally, I would highly recommend it to anyone whose college does not have a formal actuarial program.

FF: Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
HS: I think that the CAS Student Central Summer Program is by far the best resource that CAS Student Central provides.  Going into the summer, I wasn’t even considering the P&C route,. Now, I am convinced I want to go down the CAS track.

Kate Sebaganji (2021)

FF: Please introduce yourself.  
KS: I am Kate Sebaganji. I live and study in St Paul, Minnesota. I am currently a senior majoring in Actuarial Science at the University of St Thomas.

FF: How did you first learn of the actuarial profession?
KS: I first heard about the Actuarial major and field through a conversation I was having with a friend, as he was helping me explore what majors to take in college. I loved math, data, and economics, and I wanted to explore all those worlds. Actuarial Science was a great fit for what I was looking for in my education.

FF: What motivated you to participate in the Student Central Summer Program?
KS: While deciding on what to do for the 2021 summer, I wanted to do math research and an Actuarial related program/project. I was so thrilled when I received an email from CAS introducing the 2021 CAS Summer Program. From the email, I could really tell that I would be able to learn about important actuarial concepts, as well as get to know people in the industry too.

FF: What did you like most about the Summer Program?
KS: I really loved the group meetings we had with our mentors to discuss weekly actuarial topics. Those meetings were always very insightful, since we learnt about our mentors' daily actuarial work, and how they used the concepts we had learned in their tasks at work.

FF: Where are you now? Have you completed a P&C actuarial internship or obtained a full-time actuarial position?
KS: I am currently in my last semester at St. Thomas. After graduating, I'll be joining the actuarial team at Intact Insurance in Plymouth, MN.

FF: What knowledge from the Summer Program helped you in your internship or job?
KS: Learning and practicing actuarial concepts such as reserving, loss development factor calculations, and ratemaking really helped me feel more confident while starting my internship after having attended the CAS Summer Program. It felt like these concepts were not fully new, and that gave me courage while doing actuarial tasks during my internship.

FF: Do you have any advice for future participants?
KS: I would like to encourage future participants to make connections with other participants and mentors, and also ask any questions they may have to their mentors in the program. Program mentors really know a lot about the actuarial field in the real world, and their insights helped me picture daily tasks of actuaries even before working in an actuarial position.

FF: Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
KS: I am really grateful for the opportunity of having attended the CAS Summer Program; I learned a lot from the other participants and mentors.

Zoie Obst (2022)

FF: Please introduce yourself.  
ZO: Hello! My name is Zoie Obst and I am from Westfield, Indiana. I am a senior and Actuarial Science major at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.

FF: How did you first learn of the actuarial profession?
ZO: I first learned about the actuarial profession during my freshman year of college. I went into college as an anticipated Psychology major, however I quickly realized that my passions are in mathematics and economics. Luckily, one of my closest friends knew this, introduced me to her parents who are both actuaries, and I have been following the profession ever since!

FF: What motivated you to participate in the Student Central Summer Program?
ZO: I was very interested in the Student Central Summer Program for various reasons. For one, it was completely virtual and I could complete the program while also completing my summer internship. Also, during my previous internships I had only ever been directly exposed to the Casualty side of insurance, so I was excited to be exposed to a wider range of areas in order to see what I want to ultimately pursue. Finally, I was immediately drawn to the mentorship side of the program, and the wisdom I could receive from networking!

FF: What did you like most about the Summer Program?
ZO: I honestly loved the cohort/mentorship aspect of this program! It was so beneficial to have a group of people my age going through the same experiences as myself, as well as a duo of successful professionals to ask questions to and look to for advice.

FF: Where are you now? Have you completed a P&C actuarial internship or obtained a full-time actuarial position?
ZO: Currently, I am going into my second semester of my senior year! Alongside the Student Central Summer Program this past summer, I also completed my third internship as a Casualty Actuarial Analyst Intern with Swiss Re. Going off of that, this past semester I also accepted an offer to return to Swiss Re full-time as a Casualty Treaty Underwriter in their Graduate Programme beginning this August; I am beyond excited to go back!
 
FF: What knowledge from the Summer Program helped you in your internship or job?
ZO: An overall deeper and wider industry knowledge helped me so much in not only my internship, but also during the interview process for my full-time position!

FF: Do you have any advice for future participants?
ZO: I would definitely encourage you to immerse yourself fully into this program. Ask lots of questions, attend every session, complete every homework assignment, and participate! You truly will get out what you put in, so put in the work!

FF: Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
ZO: I would love to come back in the future and talk to the program about my experiences!

For students interested in participating in the 2023 CAS Student Central Summer Program, more information can be found at https://www.casstudentcentral.org/summerprogram/. A self-paced version of the program entitled the CAS Student Central Independent Summer Program is also available. This version excludes the mentorship and case competition components.

Recruitment for CAS Members and Candidates interested in volunteering as mentors will be announced later in the Spring.