At the start of this school year, the Actuarial Club strived to rebuild the actuarial community stronger than ever with an emphasis on inclusivity coming out of the pandemic. As we come to the end of another year, I am overwhelmed by the incredible accomplishments achieved by the Actuarial Club through the hard work of our leaders and members!
From a purely numerical standpoint, this academic year the club had 218 members, 12 employer presentations, 12 socials, 6 volunteering events, 6 mentorship events, 28 beautiful Instagram posts, and 1 vibrant actuarial community! We focused our attention on reducing the frequency of events but increasing the impact of each event, and some particularly memorable events are highlighted below.
The club held many engaging employer presentations, including an in-person visit to American Family Insurance, which is a Co-Curricular Learning Board company, and finished off the year strong with a presentation by the President of the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS), Roosevelt Mosley. We also organized a Python training workshop to increase student exposure to programming.
Aside from learning, we organized social events and invited faculty members to participate, with particularly memorable ones being our inaugural Boba Socials at Kung Fu Tea, a Packer Game study social, and Sett bowling socials. We also held collaborative events with the Risk Management & Insurance Society (that turned competitive at times), such as the Badminton Tournament and Halloween Pumpkin Decorating Social.
Outside the classroom, our members have achieved impressive feats, too. The list is long, yet a few are named here. Our intramural sports team made it to the playoffs of Futsal, Men’s Basketball, and Coed Basketball. Moreover, a team consisting of Actuarial Club members Parth Amrute, Kevin Konop, Joshua Lange, and David Lattos won second place at the Munich Re Cup. Finally, an amazing team consisting of Rebecca Cox, Lauren Kelly, Michael Reeser, and I achieved first place at the Spencer-RIMS Risk Management Challenge!
Above all, to better understand the actuarial community and gather feedback for the club and program, we held our inaugural actuarial climate survey, which gathered information regarding Society of Actuaries vs Casualty Actuarial Society representation, feedback on club events, and feelings of inclusivity. We also appointed our first Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), which ensures that we consciously keep DEI in mind as we plan future events and support the actuarial program’s DEI Initiative.
Thank you to our amazing officers Hannah Sell, Joshua Lange, Lauren Hartig, Zhao Yang Gan, and Anthony Polentini for leading the club and their committee members. Thanks also to our DEI committee Dayne Lassiter and Caleb Ng’etich, mentorship leads Kelly Hanlon and Kevin Konop, and intramural leads Paul Brochhausen and Jacob Lange! You have done a great job leading the club, and congratulations on an amazing year!
Additionally, thank you to Kirk Peter, Paul Johnson, Jodi Wortsman, and the other amazing faculty and staff in the actuarial program – the Actuarial Club would not have been as successful without your support and guidance!
I am excited to see where the club goes in the future. On, Wisconsin!