A favorite teacher turned actuary and an older friend enrolling at LVC led Lauryn Trimmer ’25 to visit The Valley the summer before her senior year.

“I loved it,” said Trimmer. “It was the perfect size and distance from home, and I could be independent but also come home on weekends if I wanted to. As for my major, my sophomore math teacher, who is still one of my favorite teachers and was always trying to help me figure out what I wanted to be when I was older, left teaching to become an actuary. When I discovered that LVC had a great Actuarial Science Program, it seemed like the perfect school for me.”

Trimmer, who arrived at LVC for the Fall 2022 semester, will graduate in May 2025 after three years and a full-time position at Conrad Siegel already confirmed.

Trimmer had a goal of graduating early after starting college with a semester’s worth of credits from Advanced Placement (AP) classes. Her high school preparation placed her in a higher math class during her first year at LVC, propelling her along the accelerated timeline. While Trimmer could finish her degree requirements in three years, she would still be a few credits short to meet her goal.

“My advisor brought up the idea that I could pay for credits from my internship, along with a summer course at HACC, which allowed me enough credits to graduate an entire year early,” said Trimmer. “I definitely had to work hard. Working a full-time internship, studying for my second actuarial exam, and taking a summer class wasn’t easy, but I managed my time well, stayed determined, and got it all done.”

Although this path worked for Trimmer, she advised that it’s not for everyone and that students should know how much they can handle.

“While I could have taken more AP classes in high school, I didn’t want to be overwhelmed and overly stressed,” she said. “This meant that I did really well in my few AP classes rather than possibly doing poorly in more. I also recommend finding a hobby or something to help relieve stress.”

As Trimmer prepares for graduation, she points to the Actuarial Science Job Fair as one of the keys to her success. The fair is where she found her internship with Conrad Siegel, the company that offered her a full-time position after graduation.

“The Breen Center did an amazing job of helping me prepare for the job fair by going over my résumé and giving me tips on how to look my best to companies so they would want to hire me,” said Trimmer.

During her internship, Trimmer worked on the Other Post-Employment Benefit (OPEB) Team in the actuarial line of business, creating forms for many school districts about their retirement plan provisions, financial and census data, and project benefit payments.

“A lot of my work dealt with Excel, which I thankfully had a lot of background in from a few of my LVC classes,” she said. “At the end of my internship, I gave a presentation to my entire line of business, which was about 20-30 other actuaries. While this was nerve-racking, I gave plenty of presentations in my classes, so I was plenty prepared for it. This internship helped me realize what to look for in a company and what type of insurance I want to work in.”