Combining the fields of math and business, actuarial scientists calculate the risks of everyday life in disciplines as diverse as finance, insurance and health care.
With more than 300 students, the U. of I.’s actuarial science program is one of the largest in the U.S., and is one of only 23 academic programs in the world to be recognized as a “Center of Actuarial Excellence” by the Society of Actuaries.
But not every actuarial science program offers the chance to intern with a Fortune 500 company that’s within walking distance of Assembly Hall.
Located at the Research Park on the Urbana campus, the State Farm R&D Center employs 25 student interns who perform actuarial work on pricing, predictive modeling and risk management.
Scott Farris, the research manager of the property and casualty actuarial department of State Farm Insurance and the leader of the team of undergraduates, says the student interns are interns “in name only.”
“We treat them as though they are real employees of State Farm,” he said. “All of the work that goes on here is performed under the supervision of an actuary, and we peer review everything. By the same token, the interns are doing actual work that has led to real cost-savings for the company.”
Farris says State Farm has four goals for actuarial interns: perform meaningful research; collaborate with other departments within State Farm and the university community; recruit top talent; and develop their career potential.
In other words, they’re not given the typical make-work tasks of many internships.
“Internships ought to provide real-world work experience,” Farris said. “We do meaningful research for State Farm, and we have a significant return on investment from our interns.”
According to Farris, every undergraduate actuary starts out by working on a rate proposal, filing or implementation – the kind of work that you can’t teach over the course of a single semester.
“That’s why our philosophy is having a multiple-semester internship,” he said. “Most of our interns are here for five or six semesters.”
Tiera Wiegand’s path to State Farm started her freshman year after she joined the campus actuarial science club.
“I joined the club when I first started school because, even though I was pretty sure I wanted to major in actuarial science, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting into,” said Wiegand, a junior from Wilsonville, Ore. “And within the first month I met a number of people who were interning at State Farm and highly recommended it. So I heard about it very early on, interviewed two months into school, and then started that spring.”
For the student interns, balancing the responsibilities of full-time studies with an internship at a Fortune 500 company was somewhat daunting in the beginning.
“It was tough at first but it ultimately taught me better study skills,” said Alan Kessler, a senior in actuarial science from Champaign. “It was hard to make time for everything but eventually you get used to it.”
Eric Adomaitis, a senior in actuarial science from Monticello, Ill., says his grades improved after he began his internship.
“Plus, some of the things that you learn here actually apply to classes, so it’s very useful in that sense,” he said. “If you’re having trouble with something in class, chances are you’ll get the opportunity to work on it here.”
“In one of my classes, we actually went through a State Farm auto policy, which was funny, because I was interning here at the time,” Wiegand said. “But it has definitely helped me in terms of time management, because you’re juggling a lot of responsibilities. It really forced me to prioritize.”
According to Wiegand, her classroom studies have provided a strong foundation for the real-world work that she does at State Farm.
“When you start at State Farm, it’s just assumed that you already have that baseline knowledge,” she said.
The only difference, according to Kessler, is the “speed at which you have to apply what you’ve learned,” he says.
“Everything is much more complex on the job,” Kessler said. “When you’re doing something in class, you tend to learn it at a slower pace. But here you’re flying by the seat of your pants, and you have to make sure you get everything done.”
Adomaitis says there are benefits to working on a project with a concrete goal and a deadline instead of just “endless homework.”
“It’s nice having a goal to work toward, and they put a real emphasis on collaboration,” he said. “You get to the point where you know what the next step in the project should be, and you don’t need to be told what to do next.”
It’s a partnership that not only benefits State Farm, but the students, too.
“From an intern’s perspective, I like that you get different projects, and you get exposure to a lot of things,” Kessler said.
Among their most memorable projects, Wiegand says she worked on devising the most accurate way to price a product.
“It was a bit more on the research side, and we were tasked with coming up with how to best price something as opposed to just coming up with the revision,” she said.
Kessler has worked on forecasting and financial modeling, and Adomaitis has worked on rate revisions – real-world actuarial work that provides value to State Farm.
“The volume of data and material that an intern has to absorb for a typical project is pretty big,” Farris said.
But they’re not just chained to a desk crunching numbers for the entire day. According to Farris, State Farm also has all of the interns develop their soft skills as well.
“Communication skills are stressed here – I know I’ve gotten a lot better at presenting since starting here,” Adomaitis said.
“You learn a lot by example, and I certainly feel as though I’ve learned more than enough to succeed in a corporate environment.”
The interns also are responsible for a capstone project at the corporate office in Bloomington, Ill., at the end of each semester.
“There are usually weekly or bi-weekly meetings with the corporate office to keep us on track throughout the semester, but at the end of each semester, we do a big presentation for them about what we’ve been working on and any research that we’ve performed,” Adomaitis said.
Some of Kessler’s research that was developed during his internship was featured at an industry conference. In the student poster competition, it was recognized as one of the top six posters, earning him an expense-paid trip to Las Vegas.
“It was a great experience, and I really learned a lot from industry professionals,” he said.