Actuarily Speaking: Three mathematics students named 2025 semi-finalists in national competition

Every year, the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Research Institute holds the Student Research Case Study Challenge, providing teams of college students the opportunity to apply their actuarial skills on a real-world problem in a business setting. A team of mathematics majors from OHIO, who fittingly met in Associate Professor Dr. Rida Benhaddou’s probability class, decided to enter the 2025 challenge and made it into the semi-finals.

An actuary is a professional who deals with measuring and managing risk and uncertainty, providing asset and liability management, valuation skills and data analysis. While actuaries primarily work in insurance, they are also employed in fields like healthcare, financial services and corporate risk management.

The students on OHIO’s team were Jackson Pinschenat, Jake Long (B.S. ’25) and Ben Oldiges (B.S. ’25). Long, a third-year senior, credits Pinschenat with putting the team together.  

“Jackson reached out to us with the idea of participating in this case study,” Long said. “At first, we all knew nothing about the competition, and after doing research we decided it would be a great opportunity to gain extracurricular experience.”

This year, the SOA received submissions from 68 teams at 42 universities across 17 countries: Ohio University’s team was one of 19 teams chosen for the semi-finals .

The students chose Benhaddou as their faculty advisor. Their prior work in Benhaddou’s class paired with his background in actuarial concepts and statistical methods led to his selection. Long said the students went into the project with open minds.

“We had no expectations,” Long said. “Just a willingness to learn and see where the project would take us.” 

The 2025 case study focused on the fictional country of Tarrodan, where many communities rely on earthen dams for water supply, flood control, recreation and economic stability. Teams were tasked with designing an equitable, data-driven program that accounted for regional differences across Tarrodan’s three religions. Teams worked to outline key insurance features, non-insurance measures, financial impacts and risk strategies.

Long said they spent countless hours debugging and refining their approach to produce meaningful results. Long recalls the feeling when they found out they’d been named semifinalists.

“It was overwhelmingly rewarding to know that the work we had put in was considered as highly as it was,” Long said. “It was something that I think we will all take away from OU as being one of the most memorable experiences during our time there.” 

Beyond the competition 

Jacob Long: Long earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics last spring and began working as a treasury analyst for Western and Southern Financial Group in August.

Jackson Pinsechant: Pinsechant is a fourth-year student in the Honors Tutorial College, pursuing a Bachleor of Science in mathematics with a specialization in actuarial science. He is set to graduate in spring 2026.

Ben Oldiges: Oldiges graduated last spring with a Bachelor of Science in actuarial science.