How I Spent My “Summer Vacation”

nother school year is upon us, and somewhere, even if only in my imagination, elementary school students are writing essays on how they spent their summer vacation. As an elementary school student, my essay likely would have included references to daily games with neighborhood friends — sandlot baseball, touch football, kick the can, and flashlight tag, to name a few. Rainy days would have meant reading, playing checkers, chess, and card games with my older brother, or watching educational television — you know, shows like “Batman,” “Get Smart,” and “Gilligan’s Island” — whatever was airing on one of the five or six available channels. I’m sure there would also be some family gatherings mentioned, along with a week or two at my grandparents’ home on their little lake in Indiana.

As a recently retired adult, my essay would still include lots of activities with neighborhood friends, like golf, hiking, pickleball, tennis, playing music, boating, hiking, fly-fishing, cycling, game nights, etc. It would also have some “adulting” activities, like painting (rooms in the house, not art), planting, trimming, cleaning, and all the other “benefits” of being a homeowner. Then there would be family gatherings at the lake, watching my grandchildren’s activities, and simply spending time at home. Rainy days would have involved reading, playing cards or board games with my wife, cleaning, paying bills, and, when I chose to watch some “educational” television, a lot more available channels!

This year, I would also have had the opportunity to describe some of the interesting activities and travel that come with being CAS President — the CAS Spring Meeting in New York (along with employer meetings with Aon and Verisk), the International Actuarial Association meeting in Slovenia, the CAS International General Insurance Teaching Summit in Bangkok, the Canadian Institute of Actuaries Annual Conference in Calgary (along with a side trip to Banff), a speaking engagement at CNA Insurance’s Actuarial & Data Sciences meeting in Chicago, the CAS Board retreat in Greenville, South Carolina (my adopted home town), and an Asia tour that included visits with actuarial organizations and educators in Singapore, Taipei, Shenzhen, and Qingdao.

While the CAS never gets a summer vacation as a whole, I hope and trust individual staff members and volunteers managed to get some vacation time in and enjoy their summer. As an organization, however, it looked more like the CAS attended summer school and held down a summer job instead of going to sleepaway camp, watching television, or hanging out at the lake. Here’s a sample of what the CAS was doing on its “summer vacation” in 2026:

The CAS held its seventh annual CAS Student Central Summer Program this year. Over 175 students representing 97 universities and nine different countries participated in the mentor-led program. Additionally, 50 volunteers representing 37 companies served as mentors. I had the privilege of participating in the first day’s kickoff event and was impressed with the engagement and preparedness of the student participants. For readers who might not be aware, the Summer Program was first offered in the summer of 2020 as an alternative for university students whose planned summer internships were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the program’s popularity has continued well past the pandemic years.

The CAS hosted its second International General Insurance Teaching Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, in May. The event brought together actuarial science educators from across Asia to advance the future of general insurance, or P&C, education. More than 40 universities were represented at this year’s event. I was fortunate to speak at this year’s summit, along with CAS Asia Ambassador Ron Kozlowski, CAS Board member Shaun Wang, CAS China Country Director Ran Guo, and CAS Director of International Relations and Affairs Katie Mulembe.

The CAS was a platinum sponsor of the 2026 Actuarial Research Conference, held at The Ohio State University in July. This conference is a great way for the CAS to showcase the research that we are funding and publishing, and that our members are pioneering while connecting with university faculty. Believe it or not, this was the 61st year for the Actuarial Research Conference! CAS Vice President, Research Morgan Bugbee was a speaker at this year’s event.

Held in August, this event provides a platform for the CAS to connect with GIS chapter presidents, many of whom will be future insurance industry leaders. The CAS is proud to be a sustaining partner of GIS.

Also held in August this year, the IABA Annual Meeting is designed to bring together students, early-career professionals, and experienced actuaries for education, networking, and community engagement. The CAS is proud to be a Gold Sponsor of the annual meeting and to serve on IABA’s Corporate Advisory Council. CAS Staff Actuary for Strategic Community Outreach Mallika Bender and Chief of Advocacy and Professional Development Ken Williams spoke at this year’s event on professionalism considerations when working with AI, and newly elected CAS Board member Nicole Harrington led the IABA Annual Meeting Planning Committee.

The CAS sponsored the OLA Avanza Conference in Chicago in August, presenting two educational sessions — one featuring the new AI Primer that the CAS recently published and another on bias and fairness in insurance. CAS staff attended the career fair, encouraging students to pursue the P&C career path and CAS exams, and connected with current CAS members and candidates attending the conference.

Held in Singapore in August, the AAC26 was organized by the Singapore Actuarial Society in conjunction with its 50th anniversary celebration. The CAS is a proud sponsor of AAC26, and we were happy to have been able to join the 50th anniversary celebration!

The CAS and the Actuarial Institute of Chinese Taipei (AICT) co-hosted the 2026 CAS/AICT Joint Property/Casualty Actuarial Seminar in Taipei in August, bringing together actuarial professionals from Taiwan and across Asia to share insights, explore emerging issues, and advance actuarial practice in P&C insurance. All of the speakers at the event were CAS members.

CAS Board member Shaun Wang is a professor at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen, China, who hosted a half-day event focused on cultivating safety and sustainability analysis professionals via a university-affiliated certified training program. I had the honor of offering my perspective on sustainability and enterprise risk management (ERM) topics from an actuarial perspective and participating in a roundtable discussion with representatives from academia, local government, and local insurance executives, including four Fellows of the CAS!

To wrap up a busy summer, the CAS offered its third China Insurance Summit in Qingdao, China. Ran Guo gave the welcome, and I gave an update on the CAS and a view on AI in the P&C actuarial world. We held sessions on climate risk and AI, and six Fellows of the CAS played parts in the presentations.

In addition to these highly visible activities, the CAS held its annual elections, offered numerous webinars and professional education opportunities, oversaw multiple exam sittings, and moved into a new office space in Arlington, Virginia. All in all, it was a busy and successful “summer vacation.” Thank you to all the CAS staff and volunteers who continue to offer outstanding opportunities to candidates and members throughout the year!