Abbey Barnhart ’18 always planned for her future, and now she helps businesses prepare for when an emergency strikes.

Barnhart is an actuarial assistant at The Hartford in the Catastrophe Risk department. She creates reports for businesses to help monitor different perils, which ensures that companies are not overexposed in areas that could have extreme losses from catastrophic events.

“I enjoy the relevance the work holds. Natural perils are increasingly becoming significant issues for insurance companies, and it is difficult to understand the extent of destruction that they can cause,” Barnhart said. “Monitoring the potential effects helps the company limit its downside risk, and allows us to meet our obligations to our policyholders even in the event of a severe event.”

During her first rotation, Barnhart created a wildfire report to help business partners get a better understanding of potential losses that they could encounter. This report was produced in light of the severe wildfires out west, particularly in California in recent years. Recently, she transitioned to her second rotation with the insurance company.

“Actuarial students are recommended to rotate to a new position after 12–24 months in a role. It allows you to broaden your network by working with many different people, and gives you additional opportunities to learn new skills and information,” Barnhart said.

Barnhart first connected with her current employer during LVC’s annual Actuarial Science Career Fair. She interned at The Hartford and was assigned a project to help integrate two tools that would help better price some of their products. Working independently under the supervision of her manager, Barnhart gave a presentation to her company at the end of her internship. A full-time job offer quickly followed.

“Overall, my four years at LVC were not exactly what I expected coming in, but were a much better version than I could have imagined,” she said. “While I had to put in a lot of hard work academically, I was still able to participate in volleyball and track and other extracurricular activities I enjoyed.

“I expected that I would likely come out of college with a job due to the Actuarial Science Program’s successful employment statistics, but did not expect to have a job offer going into my senior year. This took a lot of stress away during my last year of college, and allowed me to enjoy my final year at LVC.”

— Huntre Keip, Marketing & Communications Intern