Reaching out to the Future of the Profession

By Gena Long and Lisamarie Lukas, Society of Actuaries Staff

There was a time, likely not too long ago, when you made the decision to pursue a career as an actuary. Maybe you had a family member who was an actuary, or you came across the profession online or in a college catalog. Perhaps a teacher, professor or college counselor recommended it to you because you excelled in math. Regardless of how you came to the profession, the moment in time when you decided to become an actuary was a turning point in your professional history and has helped you get to where you are today.

Many young actuaries decide to pursue the profession prior to or during their college years. That's why a formal University Outreach program has been developed to connect with college students, their advisors and faculty at this important time in a student's career journey. This program provides an opportunity for students, faculty and advisors to talk directly with a practicing actuary to learn about career opportunities and to discuss the actuarial education system with professional staff from an organization like the SOA. Launched in Fall 2008, the SOA is visiting schools in North America, on behalf of the profession, to meet with students, faculty, career and academic advisors.

Typically a campus visit consists of two parts:

• An informational meeting about the education and exam process with advisors, faculty and department heads; and
• A formal presentation with the students about the future of the profession and the path to becoming an actuary.

These meetings provide an opportunity to build on the recent positive media attention the profession has received as one of the top career choices, and further highlight the unique training, important roles actuaries are playing in today's businesses and emerging opportunities for members of the profession.

To date, the program has been well received by students and faculty alike. "We had over 100 students attend our meeting. It goes to show that students are interested in pursuing careers as actuaries, however sometimes getting the information can be difficult," said Joshuah Touyz, a student at the University of Waterloo. "The outreach program successfully helped inform, educate and answer questions that students had about the profession."

The visits also have an impact on faculty and advisors. One campus advisor shared this comment on a follow–up survey, "I knew what an actuary did before this visit but now that I know more, I feel it's really like: doctors, lawyers and actuaries as far as the training goes." Long term this program will help communicate the valuable role that actuaries bring to traditional and non–traditional businesses and the career path that the profession can create.

The SOA has already visited a number of schools and has several additional schools scheduled for the remainder of 2009. Initially the outreach program has focused primarily on universities with formal actuarial science programs and also those schools with strong math, business or finance programs in the United States and Canada. Working with the Joint CAS/SOA Committees on Career Encouragement and Actuarial Diversity respectively, as the program expands, we will increase outreach to even more universities.

You can learn more about the University Outreach program through this month's edition of the ImageWatch e–Newsletter or the SOA President's letter in the April/May edition of The Actuary. Stay tuned over the course of the year to learn more about this exciting and important program.