Laura Sudholt will graduate summa cum laude in May 2007 with the Honors Program Scholar designation. Her major is Actuarial Science, with a minor in Insurance. Laura has the distinct honor of earning both the Illinois State University Provost’s Scholarship and the State Farm Scholar award.
Laura came from a small town in southern Illinois and said it was a huge change for her to come to a large university. However, she, like many, found Illinois State to have a small-college feel with large-university opportunities. She recommends that Honors students choose to live in Honors House to take advantage of meeting and becoming friends with many of the students who will be in their classes. She met her closest friends and current roommate in Honors House. She also says that having an Honors advisor has been a wonderful resource throughout all four years of college.
Last summer Laura got to experience what it is like to be in the real work-world. She worked 40 hours a week for The Hartford in Connecticut as a summer intern. She gained invaluable experience using Excel and creating new insurance rates for customers from six different states. The Hartford is a large insurance company that sells many types of insurance, in which Laura worked on the property/casualty side.
Don’t let all that number crunching make you think Laura had a dry summer experience—The Hartford treated the interns to white water rafting and even a Yankees game! Besides those excursions, Laura and her new-found friends/fellow interns explored the east coast states every weekend. She had an adventurous camping trip (they got lost!) and she went to her first Broadway show. She even got to spend her 21 st birthday in New York City!
Career fairs really ARE as important as everybody keeps telling you! Attending “Meet the Firms Night”, designed specifically for Actuarial Science majors, not only helped Laura get the internship at The Hartford, she also landed an internship last fall with State Farm. She was given the opportunity to develop more computer skills using Access and to experience working with health insurance issues. Laura’s main project was to research why women in California had such high insurance claims compared to other states.
After her two internship experiences, Laura realized she preferred working in a large firm and in the property casualty area. Once again, she made contact with a firm at a career fair and applied for a position last fall. Laura’s career will take-off in June 2007, because she has already been hired by Zurich, a large insurance firm in Schaumburg, Illinois. Laura has passed three of the nine Actuarial Exams, which gives her the title “Actuarial Analyst” at Zurich. While she already has a head start, she will continue to study for and take the other six exams. Good luck, Laura!
