The Joint Casualty Actuarial Society/Society of Actuaries Committee on Actuarial Diversity invites your summer program funding proposal for qualified minority high school students (African American, Hispanic and Native North American) to introduce actuarial science as a career opportunity. The program should identify necessary skills for an actuarial career and provide examples of tasks that an actuary might perform. Effective summer programs can result in top math students making informed decisions about colleges and careers, which should result in more of these top students choosing actuarial science.

Historically, the committee’s financial support to universities with minority high school summer programs has been about $8,000 for each program. The committee encourages summer programs to get funding from a number of sources. Many actuarial companies are also interested in supporting greater diversity in the actuarial profession and may provide funding to summer programs.

The proposal should include name, address, phone and email of faculty person responsible for the program, whether this is an existing program or a new program under development, and address all the sections below in a written statement, plus any relevant supporting material. Please return this proposal to:

Beth Gall
Society of Actuaries
475 N. Martingale Road, Suite 600
Schaumburg, IL 60173-2226
847-273-8834
bgall@soa.org

The committee will notify applicants of their status by June 1.

Please address all the sections below in your written statement.

1. Basic Qualifications for Existing and New Programs under Development.
   1. Describe how your school would meet the following basic qualification:
      1. The summer actuarial program is dedicated solely to increasing awareness of actuarial science among qualified minorities;
      2. The funds given by the Joint CAS/SOA Committee on Actuarial Diversity are solely used for costs associated with minority participants in a high school summer actuarial program that includes others in addition to minorities.
   2. Give a brief description or outline of the program, including how it is planned and implemented.
2. Effectiveness Measures
3. Existing program. Please provide the following for the most recent program year, except as otherwise noted:
   1. The number of applicants to the summer program by race and gender
   2. The number of actual participants by race and gender
   3. Last year’s participants by name
   4. Entire summer program budget if solely for minorities or portion for summer program associated with minority participation for:
      1. The past year; and
      2. Proposed for current year.
   5. List of participating companies, either as financial supporters or donors of in-kind services
   6. Number of actuaries participating as faculty or as other support to summer program
   7. Results of an exit evaluation survey administered to participants. If an alternate evaluation method was used, describe the method and results of the evaluation. If no evaluation was done, describe the evaluation tool that you would use with next year’s participants and attach a sample if available.
4. The number of summer program participants who subsequently entered your university from past years’ programs
5. The number of past summer program participants who major in actuarial science (or in mathematics or business school offering actuarial science classes) at your university
6. List of participants for each year the program has been in existence, up to the past five years. As another measure of the effectiveness of your program, these names will be tracked in the CAS/SOA exam database to see how many participants took actuarial exams.
7. Any other comments about your program that show merit for funding.
8. Any information about participants in your school’s summer program who enrolled in actuarial science programs at other universities
9. Information about Advisory Committees consisting of representatives from your school and actuarial employers
10. Information about how you communicate with participants after completion of your program. Are you willing to consider social media for this program (current prior and potential participants?)
11. New program under development. Please provide the following:
    1. The number of anticipated applicants to the summer program by race and gender
    2. The number of participants that can be accommodated in your program
    3. Entire summer program budget if solely for minorities or portion of summer program budget associated with minority participation
    4. How you would evaluate the program, including the type of tool you would use with participants to measure the perceived value of their experience
12. How you will follow up and encourage participants to enroll in actuarial science classes at your university and take the exams.
13. Any other comments about your program that show merit for funding.
14. Information about Advisory Committees consisting of representatives from your school and actuarial employers
15. Information about how you communicate with participants after completion of your program. Are you willing to consider social media for this program (current prior and potential participants?)
16. Summary
17. Name and contact information for person responsible for the program
18. Program description (I)
19. Effectiveness measures (II, A, 1-7, for existing programs, II, B, 1-4, for new programs under development)