Standing out from a highly competitive applicant pool, Ann Pogrebitskiy earned the top 2018 Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) Trust Scholarship, making her the first University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Business student to earn the prestigious scholarship. The scholarship adds to a growing list of accomplishments for the junior actuarial science major from Denver.
During her freshman year, Pogrebitskiy set herself up for success by engaging with people around her whenever and wherever she could. She introduced herself to employers and presenters, spoke to professors and interacted with upperclass students to learn from their experience. Her focus on networking enabled her to land an internship earlier than usual.
“Ann completed a property and casualty internship with Travelers Insurance in Minneapolis/St. Paul the summer after her freshman year. Most actuarial science students don’t get internships until the summer after their sophomore or junior year,” said Sue Vagts, director of the actuarial science program and Ameritas Faculty Fellow. “A speaker from Travelers came to our Interest Theory (ACTS 440) class and Ann impressed him with her questions, which led her to getting the internship.”
During the past year, Pogrebitskiy served as the CAS Student Ambassador for Nebraska. In this role, she played an integral part in planning the inaugural CAS Actuarial Science Case Competition at Nebraska held in February. She also led the opening presentation at the event. In addition to her internship and ambassador experience, she took Introduction to Property and Casualty Actuarial Science (ACTS 474) as an elective, which further demonstrated her interest in the property and casualty track to the scholarship committee.
Pogrebitskiy will receive the $10,000 scholarship funding in August and will be recognized during the CAS annual meeting in Las Vegas, held November 11-14.
“I am so incredibly humbled to be the first Nebraska student to receive this award,” she said. “We have an incredible actuarial science program, and I hope my success will encourage more students to apply.”
Pogrebitskiy surrounded by classmates as they studied the wine industry in Chile.
She originally chose Nebraska for its sense of community, diverse classes and student support. She enriched her learning further by seizing opportunities such as serving as a global correspondent for the College of Business global immersion program, “Chile: Business Hub of Latin America” last fall, where she shared her experiences abroad
through a blog for the college’s community.
“The College of Business has everything I was looking for in a program,” she explained. “I wanted a school that has a breadth of business classes for me to choose from, one that offers strong exam support and a strong sense of community within the department. All of that combined with my computer science minor through the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management has given me everything a student could possibly need to have an extremely successful career.”
The CAS Trust Scholarship program, funded by donations to the CAS Trust, awards up to three scholarships annually with the intent to further students’ interest in the property and casualty actuarial profession and encourage the pursuit of CAS designations. The first place winner receives a $10,000 scholarship and the second and third place winners, if chosen, receive $5,000 each.
To learn more about the actuarial science program, visit:
https://business.unl.edu/actuarialscience.
Published: August 7, 2018