2018 - Year in review

2018 - Year in review

Philip Lankhorst
17 december 2018
CareerLearning AcademySocialStudy

With the active members dinner and cocktail borrel this Friday, the VSAE year is coming to an end. For me, 2018 encapsulated most of my board year. For the Aenorm, 2018 marked an important milestone: from a printed magazine founded in the 20th century to a contemporary online platform. Today, let’s take a look back on the highlights of the past year. Of course, one article is too short to list everything published during the past year, so go to www.aenorm.nl if you’d like to read more!

On the 12th of March, after 25 years of Aenorms being delivered to the house address of every member, we announced that the Aenorm would go digital. The VSAE’s scientific magazine was to move towards an online platform, found on www.aenorm.nl. In our first online article the then (and still) longest-serving committee member Christiaan happily announced “the quality and the amount of the articles are bound to increase”. Two weeks later, the first new Aenorm report was published. The first major VSAE event in the year was also the first real online report: the Actuariaatcongres. The chairman of the committee (Roeben Babadzjanjan) and chairman of the congress itself (Jeroen Breen) wrote about their experiences, making for an enlightening report on the event.

For the VSAE, the second semester is always a busy period. This was also the case for the Aenorm, because the Econometric Game took place soon after the Actuariaatcongres. One of the definite highlights of the year was the article containing interviews with several participants in the Econometric Game. Harvard PhD student Gregor Schubert (2017 winner, 2018 runner-up) told us how much he enjoyed visiting Amsterdam and participating in the Econometric Game, while winner Yuhao Li explained how exhausting it is to work on a case for three days.

While both these events were interesting for students, they were mostly viewed from the perspective of an outsider: most of us will not participate in the Econometric Game and the VSAE files show only 1 in 8 members aspires to be an actuary. The Experience was the first career event in which many of us could participate. Guest reporter (and Chairman of The Experience Committee) Marcel van der Velpen wrote an exhilarating article making many of us excited for next year’s edition.

For those who found the Experience too much of a big-business affair, the following month’s Start-up Event provided some contrast. Reporter Pepyn van Haaften and Start-up Committee chairman Eli van Baar worked together on a report that was both informative and intriguing for the more entrepreneurial reader. 

Following the summer vacation, VSAE members could start orienting for future employment at the Beroependagen. Committee chairman Amber van Essen visited the event and told you all about the many possibilities the event offers for members of the VSAE and FSA. 

Soon after, a group of 24 students departed for Boston. Following three in-house events in the Netherlands, it was finally time to pay a visit to the city that houses two of the world’s leading universities. Aside from the many serious activities, there was also some time for exploring the Cradle of Liberty, visiting a basketball game and going to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, all covered in great detail in the report.

For the Aenorm, 2018 was a year of transformations: we moved from a printed magazine to an online, more blog-like format. Instead of having one big deadline every few months there were now weekly deadlines. This allowed us to move towards a new model with more reports on recent events and less content that was already old when the magazine was published. Although the motivation for moving to an online platform was mostly environmental considerations, it also meant a creative shift for the Aenorm reporters and writers. The committee has done an amazing job managing this transition and I look forward to seeing the new content on this platform after February.

At the end of January, the current board will go back to studying. As well as taking over the reins of our study association, the new board will provide a new coordinator for the Aenorm, meaning this might be one of my final contributions to our online platform. Whichever of the new board members it will be, I have the utmost trust they will work to further expand our platform and come up with new and innovative content to further intrigue and stimulate any reader of this publication.

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