{"id":93135,"date":"2014-05-08T08:20:11","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T12:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=93135"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:11:56","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T17:11:56","slug":"financial-research-student-success-add-up-in-actuarial-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/05\/financial-research-student-success-add-up-in-actuarial-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Financial Research, Student Success Add Up in Actuarial Program"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Justin<\/a>
Justin Xu, a Ph.D. student in actuarial science, talks to Matt Phelan, a Wall Street stockbroker, about the National Retirement Sustainability Index project Xu has developed. Phelan is working with the Goldenson Center to help design, price, and market a patented insurance product. (Christine Buckley\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Modeling long-term care insurance and calculating the sustainability of national retirement plans were among the projects at the recent Student Actuarial Research Conference, a display of the ways that students are thinking about improving the economy.<\/p>\n

The actuarial science program is an example of how UConn students go on to produce original research that can translate into real benefits for companies, both in Connecticut and beyond, says Jeyaraj Vadiveloo, professor and director of UConn\u2019s Janet & Mark L. Goldenson Center for Actuarial Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Housed within the Department of Mathematics, the University of Connecticut Actuarial Science Program has been recognized each of the past five years as a center of excellence by the national Society of Actuaries. The program is one of only two dozen worldwide that have that distinction.<\/p>\n

\"Milanthi<\/a>
Milanthi Sarukkali, left, an actuary at ING, talks with Shujuan Huang, a UConn actuarial science student, at the recent Student Actuarial Research Conference. (Christine Buckley\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the conference, a series of student talks in the afternoon was followed by evening poster sessions and networking among students, faculty, and business leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat stood out for me was the breadth of projects the students presented,\u201d said Brad Nieland, an assistant vice president at Sun Life Financial in Windsor, Conn. \u201cThey\u2019re tackling a lot of really interesting problems that appeal to different parts of the industry. There were things in every presentation that I was able to pull out and apply to what I do on a day-to-day basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conference, sponsored by the Goldenson Center<\/a>, showcased research of particular interest to financial companies and gave students the opportunity to speak about their work to potential future employers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a great networking opportunity,\u201d said Gunjan Saxena, a senior actuarial science student who was one of the conference organizers. \u201cStudents were able to come and practice their public speaking skills, and also talk to company officials and get their name out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe research happening here shows that UConn really is a center of actuarial excellence,\u201d said Saxena, who is the current president of UConn\u2019s chapter of Gamma Iota Sigma, the national actuarial fraternity. \u201cWe push our students to go the extra step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graduates of UConn\u2019s actuarial science program are represented across the state in Connecticut-based financial companies; members of the 2013 graduating class landed jobs at Aetna, The Hartford, ING, Cigna, MetLife, Penn Mutual, Travelers, and many other northeast and national companies. Representatives of many of those companies attended the conference.<\/p>\n

Saxena, who interned at Sun Life in the summer of 2013, will be starting a full-time position in the Sun Life actuarial department in August. She said that meeting business leaders in attendance, many of whom are vice presidents and chief actuaries at their respective companies, is an unparalleled opportunity for finding a job in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know our students are smart and capable, but actuarial students can sometimes spend all day at a desk working out math problems and not interacting as much with other people as they\u2019d like to,\u201d Saxena noted. \u201cSo this gives them a chance to do that. This gives students experience and confidence in their work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nieland, the assistant VP of Sun Life Financial, agrees. For example, he said, an interest rate model developed and presented by one of the students was in some ways more useful than the rate model developed by the American Academy of Actuaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a proof point of how this work has an impact not just on Connecticut, but on the broader United States,\u201d said Nieland. \u201cYou can\u2019t help but walk away impressed by these young people, and how quickly they\u2019ve developed at UConn.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The actuarial science program is an example of how UConn students produce original research that can translate into real benefits for companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":93113,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[63],"class_list":["post-93135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-19 21:36:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93135"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93138,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93135\/revisions\/93138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/93113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93135"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=93135"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=93135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}