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OLA Industry Newsletter: March 2023

Tuesday, March 14, 2023 (0 Comments)
Posted by: Marcela Granados

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OLA INDUSTRY NEWSLETTER

MARCH 2023

Dear OLA Community,

This industry newsletter is provided to our professional members, industry sponsors, partners, allies, and subscribers to keep you current with OLA's various activities, spotlight members of our community, and connect you with career and volunteer opportunities.

If you are not already on our distribution list, please register for an OLA Member Portal account at members.latinoactuaries.org to receive this newsletter and other important communications!

Please reach out to our newsletter team at newsletter@latinoactuaries.org if you have any questions or feedback (or for corporate sponsors and partners, any items you'd like featured in this newsletter), and thank you for your continued support of OLA!

Marcela Granados, FCAS (she/her)
Director of Membership

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UPCOMING EVENTS & Announcements

American Academy of Actuaries Announces Academy Award for Research

The American Academy of Actuaries is making plans to conduct its first annual Academy Award for Research selection during the summer of 2023. The award will go to an early-career scholar whose work contributes significantly to an actuarial perspective on a public policy issue of interest to U.S. actuaries and public policy makers. The American Academy of Actuaries’ Research Committee invites submissions for consideration by March 31, 2023.

The award will include a monetary prize of $7,500 and presentations of the work—either in person or virtually—at the Academy’s annual meeting in November in Washington, D.C., and/or at the Actuarial Research Conference in July–August at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. The Academy will cover reasonable travel expenses.

The award is devoted to research on a particular theme with broad applicability across different policymaking and regulatory environments and across actuarial practice areas. For the inaugural award in 2023, the theme will be Climate Change/Climate Risk.

For more information on the submission criteria and how to enter, please click here. For any question, please contact Steve Jackson.

Spread the news--OLA scholarships

Do you know any Latine students that would benefit from our scholarships? If so, please help us spread the word so we can reach as many students as possible.

The link to the applications can be found here, and applications are due April 15, 2023.

If you have any questions we will be hosting a drop-in Q&A session on March 29th, 2023 from 5:00 PM - 10:00 PM ET. To register, please click the link here.

We also encourage students to look at all the scholarships listed in case they qualify for something else. We'd like them to get as much support as possible!

Conference of Consulting Actuaries

The Conference of Consulting Actuaries has two virtual meetings coming up and we wanted to pass the message along to our members! For more information, and for registration, please look below.

CCA Healthcare Meeting | April 11th & 13th

Every year, the CCA hosts a 2-day, 8-session Healthcare Meeting covering a wide variety of key healthcare topics. This timely and relevant virtual meeting provides you with an opportunity to learn about the latest developments in an ever-changing and popular practice area. Experts in the healthcare field will address issues facing employers and consultants, outline opportunities for savings and improvements, and offer potential solutions that will allow actuaries to deliver better value. When you register for this meeting you will be automatically registered for the April 12 CCA webinar, The 3Ms and the Ties That Bind Federal Healthcare Regulatory Direction, at no additional cost.

2023 CCA Enrolled Actuaries Conference | May 1st, 3rd, & 5th

This virtual meeting will offer 39 sessions over three days with four concurrent session blocks offering you the opportunity to earn EA credit for your renewal. The program will include sessions of interest to all pension actuaries, whether you practice in the single, multiemployer, or public plan arena, and whether you work for large, medium or small plan sponsors. Enrolled Actuaries may earn up to 18.5 credit hours of continuing education credits under the Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries (JBEA) requirements. Total credits include 2.0 EA ethics credits and 1.5 credits toward the bias requirement. Many of the sessions will be recorded, allowing for participants to earn more CPD credits under the Qualification Standards.

Spanish SpeakING Actuaries--DEI and the Actuarial Profession

For our Spanish Speaking Actuaries, OLA Treasurer, J. Alfonso Carrillo-Lundgren, will be speaking on DEI and the actuarial profession on a session organization by the Universidad Anahuac in Mexico and the Mexican Colegio Nacional de Actuarios (main actuarial professional associate in Mexico). This will include an overview of the affinity actuarial organizations in the US and well as what we do here at OLA!

This virtual event will be held Wednesday, March 15th at 6:00 PM ET (4:00 PM CDXT). For more information and the Zoom ID, please check out the flyer here.

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COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHTS

RICARDO REYES

Hometown: Berkeley, CA

University: University of California, Berkeley

Major: Data Science

Expected Graduation Date: May 2024

Tell us a little about yourself: In my free time, I love to go out and try new places to eat, hang out with my close friends and work out at the gym.

How has OLA impacted your career? Super happy to have joined OLA in the beginning of my actuarial career. Thanks to OLA, I've kept myself going in the actuarial field, met awesome mentors and have created long lasting relationships especially via their travel/conference scholarship. In addition, OLA has provided me with an academic scholarship that has kept me motivated in school and encouraged me to keep promoting OLA to others and help more Latinos join the actuarial industry.

How have you been involved with OLA so far? I have participated in the RLP Program and OLA Academy, and have also been the recipient of an Academic Scholarship and a Conference/Convention Travel Scholarhsip.

How did you discover the actuarial profession? I discovered the actuarial profession by researching online various careers that integrated both math and business and that's where I found out about actuarial science.

Ricardo is currently an actuarial intern with Nationwide! He also hopes to keep promoting OLA within his community and passing Exam P this summer (good luck!!).

Connect with Ricardo on LinkedIn!

STEVE FLORES-MEDRANO

Higher Educations Relations PM

Current Employer & Position: Vault Reciprocal Exchange, Jr. Actuarial Analyst

Hometown: Cumming, GA

Current City: St. Petersburg, FL

University: Georgia State University, Class of 2020

Major: Bachelor of Business Administration - Actuarial Science

Why did you decide to become a PM? I'm originally from north Georgia and lived all my life there until I moved to St. Petersburg, FL. Here, I got my job at Vault, and I have loved it ever since! Whenever I'm not in the office, I'm spinning the decks as a bedroom DJ! I am open for any gigs if anyone has any available ;)

I decided to become a program manager since I am the byproduct of being a first generation immigrant: there are endless possibilities but not much guidance in regards to what your future calling is. Being a PM would help me reach out to other Latines in my prior situation and help them to become their best selves at least professionally.

The thing that I am most excited for 2023 is the new initiatives to reach out to community colleges. There are many Latine students that deserve to know about the actuarial profession, and community colleges are a great avenue to reach out to the Latines that may have more use of the resources that OLA offers.

Before becoming a PM, I was one of the many recipients of help from OLA. I received help in writing my resume from none other than Regina, and Lala personally made sure that I was able to receive a stipend for my study materials and first exam. I also created the OLA Pulse Check, which helps connect all of our OLA candidates with each other and lets us hear about what we can better do to serve the OLA community.

What advice would you like to give to aspiring actuaries? Know that thousands of people have passed these tests before. You can get through them, even if it takes you longer than expected.

Steve loves gaming, is a DJ, a big fan of pop culture, and loves ice cream!

Connect with Steve on LinkedIn!

We enjoy featuring and sharing the stories of members of the Latine actuarial community! If you have a nomination for a spotlight, please ask them to fill out this form with their information/headshot.

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CAREER CORNER

Platinum, Gold PLus, and Gold Corporate Sponsor Job postings

Please click on the following job posting titles to explore openings sent to us by our Platinum, Gold Plus, and Gold Corporate Sponsors.

DO YOU HAVE JOB POSTINGS TO SHARE?

Our Platinum, Gold Plus, and Gold Corporate Sponsors can send us job postings for experienced professionals to be advertised in this monthly newsletter! Postings sent to newsletter@latinoactuaries.org before March 24, 2023, will appear in the next newsletter that will be sent the first week of April.

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VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

VOLUNTEER WITH OLA!

Are you interested in volunteering with OLA? Sign-in to your OLA Member Portal account and edit your profile to indicate your volunteer interests! If you do not already have an OLA Member Portal account, you can click here to register.

Check-out our Volunteer page at https://www.latinoactuaries.org/volunteer/ for more details on volunteer opportunities, and contact us at membership@latinoactuaries.org for more information!

OLA ACADEMY VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

OLA Academy, our signature program, is a self-paced and web-based program that helps prospective actuaries navigate the job search process. We provide training on resume writing, interviewing, networking, and designing a LinkedIn profile. Given the launch of OLA Academy's Spring 2023 Participation Period (which runs through June 30, 2023), we need volunteers for the following:

OLA Academy Coordinators who will support, guide, and mentor up to ten prospects in the same cohort (college/university students, recent graduates, or career changers).
Resume Reviewers to help OLA's prospects effectively communicate what they have achieved and why they would be great hires. These volunteers will review resumes for one or more actuarial entry-level applicants, based on availability.
Mock Interviewers who can coach students on preparing for real internship or full-time job interviews. Some prospects have never interviewed in a professional setting, so you can help us increase their interview experience and confidence! These volunteers interview around three prospects, on average, based on availability.
HireVue Submission Reviewers will help us prepare our job seekers in conveying their skills and competencies in a recorded interview. This skill is crucial given the increasing prevalence of virtual interview tools in initial screening processes. HireVue is the platform we selected given its wide use in the industry. Volunteers will be asked to review mock HireVue screenings and provide written and constructive feedback for OLA Academy participants.

If you're interested in any of the above opportunities, please indicate that interest in the "Volunteer Preferences" field in your OLA Member Portal profile, and email academy@latinoactuaries.org if you have any questions! We will reach out to interested volunteers on a rolling basis to get them onboarded ASAP.

Note that you can volunteer for multiple programs simultaneously (as your schedule permits), so don't hesitate to sign-up if you're already volunteering in another capacity!

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Support OLA!

CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS

We have different sponsorship tiers that can fit your company's size and strategy! If you are interested in sponsoring OLA, please e-mail us at info@latinoactuaries.org. We can schedule a call and provide information you need or answer your questions.

Individual Donations

OLA supports our Latine actuarial prospects (students, career changers, etc.) via scholarship programs, exam materials and registration reimbursements, and our travel program that sends prospects to the ALPFA and GIS conventions to help them network and secure jobs at the on-site career fairs.

Individual donations of any amount can go a long way in helping us sustain these programs, so please click here if interested in donating!

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