"Professor McDonald"

I had a brainstorm this morning while preparing to teach another 2-hour actuarial math class.

The raw content was simply an expansion of the calculations we'd learned on Tuesday - just more of them, so more tedious. I had the choice to walk through them as I'd done the previous class. It just felt so lame.

Then came the idea to simulate real-world actuarial work.

I assigned them into three teams and had them introduce themselves to each other by pretending they were in a job interview: "Why did you choose ISU instead of another, bigger school?" Then they shared with the whole class.

Having completed introductions, I directed them to a handout with a bunch of numbers organized on it. "I'm the head of your actuarial department, extremely busy. I just got this information from a competitor but don't have time to figure out where they came from. I need your team to develop a presentation and write it on the board explaining all four of these indicators. First one to finish becomes my A team of all-stars in extra-good graces with the boss."

And so, with fairly little direction about how to get the numbers or how best to organize themselves, they got busy looking up formulas and crunching numbers. Trying to match numbers was such a big part of my State Farm career, and definitely for new hires.

Eventually one group got up there, and I hammed it up as a grouchy end-of-day tired overworked VP asking for clarification on many of the numbers they hadn't fully explained.

We did the exercise a second time, with the same teams and different numbers. I "promoted" the A team and so even though they weren't eligible to win again, gave them a special project of developing the pros and cons of life versus auto insurance actuarial jobs. During that discussion I was able to share several anecdotes about actuarial work.

The third time around, we shuffled the teams. I asked them to introduce each other by explaining what skills/traits are important for actuaries (i.e. Why should I hire you?). That let me point out things we look for in job candidates, and other comments on professionalism and culture.

Coincidentally, and happily, it took them almost exactly the full class period to complete all three exercises.

What could have been a dreary pre-holiday weekend, sleepy afternoon tedious class turned out to be a workshop in problem-solving, teamwork, and tips on choosing their career and becoming more employable. I could hardly have been happier.

Although I must say, the most memorable moment of the day was when one of the students addressed me as "Professor McDonald." I suppose a pessimist could've felt old by that comment. I'm not generally a person fond of titles, so it surprised me that a wave of warmth and affirmation washed over me in that instant. I can see why it would get addictive.

Back to school Tuesday!