Finding Purpose through Mentorship

Laura Mitchell became a volunteer with The Actuarial Foundation five years ago after having supported the Foundation financially for years. She was seeking a new way to give back, this time through hands-on involvement. What began as a virtual volunteer opportunity quickly became a deeply meaningful experience, allowing Laura to mentor students as they explored real-world problems through data, analysis, and teamwork.

When TAF asked me to write a BLOG about my involvement with the MTFC, I was both excited and nervous. I love being involved with this program, but I don’t BLOG, I don’t even keep a journal.

I became involved with the Modeling the Future Challenge (MTFC) in late 2020 in the middle of the pandemic. In the past, I had donated money to The Actuarial Foundation (TAF), but not my time. As someone who has spent a lot of time volunteering (Big Sisters, tutoring, etc.), I was looking for virtual volunteer opportunities and MTFC spoke to me.

My first teams were a mix—one was “this-is-why-everyone-hates-group-projects”, two teams were  smart, driven students, a fourth had seniors that were early admissions to Cal Tech and MIT, and the fifth,  a group of amazing young women (three juniors) who made it to the MTFC finals and won second place. At that point I was hooked. I find it compelling to know I was helping propel these students forward.

Every year I have been fortunate to work with incredibly intelligent, talented students.  (I haven’t had a repeat of the first year’s “group project” team.) I’ve helped teams rethink or resize projects (when there is more data than they could possibly analyze in the given time frame) and helped them think about the way they tell the story of their project in 25 pages (which is both long and short at the same time).

One of my 2024/2025 MTFC teams was a single student, Shreyas, who won first place, a $20,000 scholarship. While we only met three times, I was moved to tears when he won because during those meetings I could see how determined he was, how hard he worked, and what an amazing job he did on his project.

His project was about the risk of drug overdoses and identifying high-risk overdose counties nationwide. He recommended that these counties implement wide-scale Take Home Naloxone kits to reduce overdose mortality. As someone who hasn’t taken an actuarial exam in decades, I was lost when he talked about Multilayer Perceptron networks and other machine learning models, but this gave me the opportunity to remind him about his audience, who may or may not understand everything he wrote about.

Following his win, Shreyas did an interview with TAF about the MTFC experience. In the video he talked about working on his project, keeping in mind the things we discussed in our meetings and asking himself “What would Laura do?” I was moved beyond words, realizing the impact one person can have on these students.

The scholarship money the MTFC provides opens doors to further support these smart and dedicated students. Nichole Semprit at TAF talks about the MTFC as her favorite time of the year. It is mine too, and I hope that you will make it yours by volunteering with the MTFC.

Each year, Laura continues to be inspired by students’ intelligence, creativity, and determination. From seeing students win national recognition to watching their confidence grow, Laura’s experience is a testament to the impact that dedicated mentors can have. The Actuarial Foundation’s scholarships, like those provided through the MTFC, help open doors for these talented young people, and Laura hopes others will join her in supporting and volunteering for this life-changing program.