Alumni Achievements

While I was at the CIA's annual meeting in Toronto June 21-22nd, I ran into several U of R ActSci Alumni, three of whom were hitting actuarial milestones.  Paul Gobeil (class of 2008) received his FCIA during the meeting.

In addition, Derek Beatch and Kali Spencer (both class of 2010) were not at the CIA meeting but were attending an Associate Professionalism Course held at the same hotel.  This means that they should both become ASAs and ACIAs shortly.

Congratulations to all three.

Congratulations to Ha Lam - Double Award Winner

The Governor General's Academic Silver Medal is awarded to the undergraduate student who achieves the highest academic standing in a bachelor's degree program. The recipient is Ha Lam, who is also this year's winner of the University Prize in Science. She is graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Actuarial Science, with Internship designation and achieving Great Distinction with cumulative grade point average above 93 per cent.

Congratulations to our June 2012 Grads

This Thursday marks convocation for 9 graduates with degrees in Actuarial Science.  The 9 grads are

Steven Buchan
Chi Bui
Worthy Chinenyanga
Kadan Kelly
Ha Lam
Nimco Moumin
Sasha Parsons
Sarah Shoulak; and
Carlos Vargas.

Congratulations to all of our 2012 grads and good luck with your future endeavours.

Recent Hires at AON Hewitt

We had a visit from AON Hewitt earlier this week, as Troy Milnthorp (Saskatoon) and Don Ireland (Calgary) are the actuaries for the University's pension plans.  AON Hewitt have recently hired 5 new actuarial staff, 4 of them U of R grads.  The Saskatoon office hired Steven Buchan, Nimco Moumin (both 2012 grads) and Tammy Johnson (a 2008 grad) while Kadan Kelly (another 2012 grad) has started in the Calgary office.  Congratulation to all four!

A Visit to the Cooperators

The U of R internship program gives students the opportunity for a 12-16 month work experience between their third and fourth year classes.  I am in the process of doing on site visits with the cohort of 5 interns who started their 16 month work terms in May 2011 and the one intern who started a 12 month work term in September 2011.  All five return for their last year of classes in September 2012.  I suspect that the cultural change from work place to class room (not to mention the loss of a pay check) will a shock to them.

I did an on site visit with two of our interns at the Cooperators yesterday, Chelsea Valois and Erin Dodd.  Chelsea and Erin are in the last semester of their 16 month work terms.  By all accounts they are having very positive experiences.  It was also nice to touch base with U of R grads working at the Cooperators.  Chelsea's supervisor is Thomas Wood who was one of the first U of R interns and a student in the very first ActSci class I taught (ACSC116 bass in the Fall 2002 term).

Next week I will visit two more interns at Cooperators, Colin Billet who is finishing a 16 month work term and Jing Lu who is finishing a 12 month work term.  

The fifth intern is Emelita Tejeda who is on a 16 month term at the WCB.  She gets an on site visit from me every week, due to my role as internal actuary at the WCB!

SOA Exams At U of R and Poll

We had 5 candidates write exam P on the 15th and 4 write exam C on the 22nd.  No one signed up to write exam FM at the U of R, but I know of at least one person doing it via CBT in Saskatoon.

I've posted a poll on exam writing - do you prefer the old fashioned pen and paper or that new fangled computer based testing method?

What to Bring to an SOA Exam

I've just spent 20 minutes signing in a group of fresh candidates writing their first SOA exam.  Remember the following things for your exam.

DO bring

1. Your letter of acknowledgement from the SOA (2 candidates appeared without these today).
2. An SOA calculator (I had to supply two candidates with calculators because they brought the wrong one) - and know how it works!
3. Photo ID; and
4. Pencils and an eraser.

DONT

1. Leave your cell phone on so that it rings during the exam;
2. Bring food to the exam - drinks are ok as long as they don't "cause a disturbance" (I'm still figuring that one out);
3. Use a pen; or
4. Keep writing after time is called.