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alumni

Alumni spotlight

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Michael Watanabe is a 2005 UH alum who is now an actuary at Pacific Life.

He has visited the department several times to share about the actuarial profession with prospective graduates of the department.

He was originally employed by Pacific Guardian Life Insurance Company in Honolulu, but have since moved to Pacific Life (no affiliation) and have continued practicing as an actuary. Pacific Life has opened up applications for actuarial internships in Summer 2024, and invite any interested students in the actuarial profession to apply for consideration.

Michael is willing to volunteer to be a point of contact or a mentor for anyone interested in the actuarial profession from the department or host a group discussion/information session on the actuarial profession.

Contact info:

Michael Watanabe, FSA, MAAA, CERA

Director & Actuary, GAAP Valuation

Michael.Watanabe@pacificlife.com

www.pacificlife.com

Pacific Life Insurance Company
Proud to be named one of the 2023 World’s Most Ethical Companies® by the Ethisphere Institute.

program

Society of Actuaries recognition

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The UH Manoa actuarial curriculum is recognized by a national body: University of Hawaii at Manoa is listed at Universities and Colleges with Actuarial Programs (UCAP) in the Introductory Curriculum classification, including courses for Exam FM and P as well as VEE (Validation by Educational Experience). Here is a link to our profile: https://www.soa.org/institutions/university-of-hawaii—manoa/ University of Hawaii at Manoa also appears on the SOA Explorer map. This recognition was made possible primarily by a new course is coming your way in Fall 2023: Math 370: Financial Mathematics. Among other things, the course will prepare students for the actuarial examination in Financial Mathematics (Exam FM). We already have courses preparing students for the actuarial examination in Probability (Exam P): Math 471 and Math 472. More information about this career path at Actuarial Science @ UH.370-1
funding

Decision Research Corporation grants 2020-2025

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A \$7,705 grant from Decision Research Corporation for summers 2020-2022 supported work by undergraduate students, grad students, and the Principal Investigator, Professor Bjørn Kjos-Hanssen, towards
  • research in theoretical computer science and mathematics,
  • coding in the Go language and the Lean theorem prover, and
  • topics of common interest between industry and the University.
A second installment of the grant, of $9,000, covers the summers of 2023-2025. Students supported by the grant:
Year Undergrads Grad students
2020 Sabrina Hardisty, Guanhong Li, Jacqueline Millard Soowhan Yoon, Saroj Niraula
2021 Ellen Hughes, Monica Johnson Ryan Sasaki
2022 Liliana Kershner
2023 Tung Nguyen, Sophia Kop, Brian Shu
2024 Clark Eggerman, Nanami Tachibana Janani Lakshmanan, Kawika O’Connor
2025 (Spring) Kelly Masaki, Sakura Takahashi, Kotaro Tadaki
2025 (Summer) Elwais Golbuu, Anne Dominique Malig, Kyler Okuma
courses

Actuarial courses

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Sample plan (under construction)
See also Applied/Actuarial emphasis

2MATH 242, ECON 1313MATH 243, ECON 300, MATH 3704MATH 244, ECON 301, MATH 3725ACC 200, ECON 425 (Econometrics)6ACC 210*7MATH 4718MATH 472

Semester Courses
1 MATH 241, ECON 130

(*ACC 201 and 202 have been retired.)

VEE Course listing for UH Manoa (needs to be updated)

CAS path to success

1. Exam P (MATH 471 and 472)
2. Exam FM (MATH 370)
3. VEE Accounting and Finance (apply after completing two exams)
4. VEE Economics
5. Hired. New job!

As of July 2018, SOA requires VEE in:

  • Economics (required for Introductory-1 status)
  • Accounting and Finance (required for Introductory-1 status)
  • Mathematical Statistics (required for Introductory-2 status)
UH Manoa course Relevant actuarial requirement
MATH 471 Exam P
MATH 472 Exam P
MATH 370 Exam FM
ACC 202 (Introduction to Management Accounting) Prerequisite for BUS 314
ECON 130 (Principles of Microeconomics) VEE Economics; prereq for BUS 314
ECON 131 (Principles of Macroeconomics) VEE Economics; prereq for BUS 314
ECON 300 (Intermediate Macroeconomics) VEE Economics
ECON 301 (Intermediate Microeconomics) VEE Economics
MATH 472 VEE – Applied Statistical Methods (no longer required by SOA)
ECON 629 VEE – Applied Statistical Methods
VEE – Mathematical Statistics

*These courses cover some Exam FM material. A comprehensive Mathematics Department course geared toward Exam FM, MATH 370, was approved in 2023.

Approval code Course Number Course Name Begin Date End Date Acceptable Grades Documentation Required Additional Requirements
1204-12231 ECON629 Econometrics II 9/1/2011 6/30/2018 A+,A,A-,B+,B,B- Original Official Transcript

Approved for regression component only; must be paired with approved time series offering from any school or alternate provider.
1204-7369 MATH472 Statistical Inference 1/1/1975 12/31/2017 A+,A,A-,B+,B,B- Original Official Transcript

Approved for regression component only; must be paired with approved time series offering from any school or alternate provider.