Get to Know the CAS Trust Scholarship Recipients
The CAS Trust Scholarship Committee is pleased to announce this year’s winners of the CAS Trust Scholarship: Ann Pogrebitskiy, Kristen Marshall and Adam Lathan.
Ann Pogrebitskiy, a junior at The University of Nebraska – Lincoln double majoring in actuarial science and finance and minoring in computer science, mathematics, and statistics, is this year’s recipient of the $10,000 CAS Trust Scholarship.
“I am incredibly honored to be selected as one of the scholarship recipients this year,” she said. Pogrebitskiy is currently interning at Cigna, within the Group Healthcare Expense Pricing sector. Her internship allows her to analyze the expense allocation factors to determine how expenses are included in group case premiums, as well as communicate with various matrix partners to learn how financial reporting currently allocates expenses. “Becoming an Actuary is no easy feat, but having the support of an organization like the CAS simplifies the process and makes a complicated career path understandable. I have worked very hard to get to where I am today, and this award means that I am heading in the right direction. I hope that winning this award inspires other young aspiring actuaries to take the chances they think are impossible.”
Kristen Marshall, a senior at Illinois State University working towards a major in actuarial science and a minor in risk management & insurance, has been awarded a $5,000 CAS Trust Scholarship. “As an aspiring Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, I am truly honored to be chosen as one of the recipients of the prestigious CAS Trust Scholarship. I am blown away by the generous support from the industry through scholarships, internships, and conferences that foster the next generation of leaders,” Marshall said. Senior year, Marshall will serve as Co-President of the Actuarial Club and Treasurer of Christian Business Leaders. Throughout the remainder of her college career, she will continue to gain experience through her internship at Pinnacle Actuarial Resources, where she has accepted a full-time offer after graduation. “I look forward to the opportunity to meet actuaries from across the nation at the Annual Meeting in the fall. For my senior year at Illinois State University, I am excited to help improve participation in the Actuarial Club and to pay it forward by taking the time to help younger students find their way in the competitive field of actuarial science. Finally, I would like to thank my family, co-workers, professors, and classmates who supported me in pursuing my passion.”
Adam Lathan is an actuarial science, data analytics, and information systems major, and rising junior at Drake University. He has been awarded a $5,000 CAS Trust Scholarship. “I am incredibly honored to be selected as one of the scholarship recipients this year,” Lathan said. Lathan recently completed an actuarial internship at the Iowa Farm Bureau where he contributed to the creation of automated reporting tools to be used across multiple departments, as well as worked on automation, reducing runtime by over 50%, or roughly 20 hours. Prior to his internship at the Farm Bureau, Lathan worked as a project associate at Bridge Solutions, studying historical pricing methods for microinsurance products, among other tasks. “Receiving this scholarship helps me with more than just paying for school—it gives me the confidence of knowing that there is a wealth of support and resources for aspiring actuaries like myself.”
To learn more about the CAS Trust Scholarship, and to apply for next year, be on the lookout for the 2018-2019 announcement and application! Coming soon – fall 2018.
I had the pleasure to speak at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) Actuarial Day on Friday April 20th. UCSB is one of the 7 schools that has won the CAS University Award, recognizing them as a leader in educating property and casualty actuaries.
As I mentioned, I had lunch with a number of the officers of the actuarial club. It is always very interesting to meet talented people. In addition to pursuing her actuarial career and being treasurer of the actuarial club at UCSB, Sukanya Joshi also is part of a competitive dance team. She practices three times a week on the UCSB Bollywood Fusion Dance Team. The day after my talk she was dancing for charity, to raise money for the Akshaya Patra Foundation – the world’s largest school lunch program, which aims to end child hunger.The event was very successful. Congratulations, Sukanya.
The students were very interested in my discussion on telematics and predictive analytics. Also, Eric Weibel, President of Zendrive, was in the audience as an alumnus. Zendrive for years has collected individual driving information (speed, miles driven etc.) via a smart phone. Zendrive among other things uses this information to derive a driving score based on various variables (e.g. distracted driving, speed, hard braking etc.) to predict a driver’s likelihood of having an accident. Zendrive recently reached a billion miles of data.
It was a pleasure to visit and speak to the actuarial students at the University of Connecticut (UCONN) recently. UCONN has a long tradition of being one of the most well respected actuarial programs. It is one of the seven schools that has won the CAS University Award for exemplary education of property casualty actuarial students.
I mentioned that my most interesting assignments were merger & acquisition assignments where I represented the potential buyer. I liked digging into the details of the potential target company and highlighting the positives and negatives to my client. The most stressful and enjoyable situations involved finding and communicating problems with the target company that no one else found.
I also loved interacting with the faculty. I got along with Jim Trimble (Actuarial Science Program Director) well even though he is a lifelong and avid Green Bay Packer fan. Growing up in Chicago, I am a lifelong Bears fan – which has not been good the past few years. Jim heads up a wonderful and talented faculty.
